The Best of Project Management

The Best of Project Management A selection of professional insights from the Blog archive

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Since 2008 our project management professionals have been sharing knowledge, experience and learning with online readers via the Project Manager Blog. Their collective wisdom provides a wealth of how to, top tips and best practice advice, for project managers, teams and businesses.

To make their writings more accessible we’ve created a series of “Best of” project management topics available free to download and share.Here is a collection of excerpts discussing project management processes at various project levels including portfolio project management, program management and enterprise project management Enjoy!

Jason Westland CEO ProjectManager.com What is Project Management? .................................................................................................................... 3 3 Techniques for Project Management ....................................................................................................... 5 4 Ways to Perform a Preemptive Project Management Job ...................................................................... 7 Beat Them to the Punch .............................................................................................................................. 9 6 Tips for Creating a Project Budget.......................................................................................................... 10 Keeping Projects Under Budget ................................................................................................................ 12 How to Define Your Project ....................................................................................................................... 13 6 Tips to Start your New Project ............................................................................................................... 15 Understand the Value of the Project Management Solution You Offer ................................................... 18 5 Things You Need to Monitor During Projects ........................................................................................ 21 What is Project Portfolio Management?................................................................................................... 21 Project Portfolio Management and Benefit Realization ........................................................................... 23 Top Tips for Portfolio Management .......................................................................................................... 26 What is Program Management and How Does It Compare to Project Management? ............................ 26 What’s the Difference Between a Project and a Program? ...................................................................... 29 The Challenges of Enterprise Project Management ................................................................................. 31 What is Enterprise Project Management Success? ................................................................................... 33 An Introduction to Project Management Processes ................................................................................. 36 Understanding Critical Path Management Concepts ................................................................................ 39 Overcoming the Challenges of Online Project Management ................................................................... 42 30 Day Free Software Trial ........................................................................................................................ 46 ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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What is Project Management?

Rather than get bogged down in the technical details and job description of what a project manager does and what would be considered the best definition of project management, we will focus more on the “spirit” of project management. Simply put, project management is the glue that holds everything together.

Anyone that has been successful in a project manager position or worked in a Project Management Office that was effective knows what that means. It means the upper executives that are removed from the day to day details of the project will look to this group for their level of comfort within an organization.

If you focus on the following five areas and view these as the principles of what project management is, you will quickly garner the respect and confidence of those around you.

1. Communication Communication is at the top of the list if you want to know what project management skills are about. Project Managers are the central repository of any and all information related to the project. A project manager is not expected to have all the answers, especially in a technical environment, but they will know where they can get the answers.

What’s more, a project manager that is a great communicator will, as a rule of thumb, never just forward information on to others without adding some value to the information beyond “FYI”. They will help others understand why this information is important, what impact this will have on the project, why this is a good thing or a bad thing, and what action is expected of the person that is receiving this information.

2. Collaboration This is a critical area that can make or break a project manager. Project Management is about not taking sides, but rather making the right decisions. Your team will appreciate the fact that you make objective decisions for the good of the project based upon input ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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from all. When it comes to collaboration this is where online project management software can help.

3. Teamwork The way we work is changing and even our definition of Team is changing. The new teamwork can be defined as a group of people with certain skill sets and expertise coming together for brief periods of time to accomplish a common objective….and then disband to potentially come together again (or not) on the next project.

Project Management is about managing these new teams. It’s about getting people up to speed fast, establishing trust quickly, and then delivering results…all within a fraction of the time it used to previously take.

4. Resolution You can be assured that something will go wrong on your project. You can have all the communication, collaboration and teamwork in the world…but something will go wrong. It’s the nature of the beast. Project Management is about bringing these problems to resolution quickly.

Project Management is not about pointing fingers, affixing blame, or tracking down the culprit. It’s about taking the high road and getting the problem fixed…first. Then, if there’s a deeper problem that needs to be addressed, perhaps a team member’s performance, project management is about resolving those issues with discretion and good judgment.

5. Celebration And finally, project management is about celebrating a job well done. There’s nothing like a group of people with different backgrounds, functions, and skill sets coming together for a brief period of time and accomplishing something great. How you celebrate is up to you. It may be just the quiet inner satisfaction you receive from knowing a job has been done well, to getting everyone together for a fling. Take some time to pause, reflect, and appreciate each other. You’ll be renewed and energized for your next project.

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3 Techniques for Project Management The 3 techniques for project management below will cause you to ask questions about how you are currently doing things and if there are any areas in which you could improve.

Innovation The first of the three techniques for project management has to do with Innovation.

Innovation concentrates on creating new and more effective or efficient ways of doing things that did not previously exist. What are some areas you could apply innovation in when it comes to your job as project manager?

If you are a “New to the Job” Project Manager–If you are new to a particular company and serving as a project manager then you have a great opportunity to objectively look around the organization. Take this opportunity to get some innovative processes and procedures in motion. This is also a great time to do something new because you have not been sucked into all the meetings that have a tendency to consume nearly 80% of everyone else’s days. You can look around and see if there are any obvious approvals or process checkpoints that are missing that could quickly be implemented and make wholesale improvements to the company in no time at all.

If you are a “Been there for a While” Project Manager – The trick here is that it depends more upon how you sell the new ideas to management. You will undoubtedly be involved within the politics of the organization and you need to make sure the right people understand your reasons and motives for wanting to implement something new.

Then, you need to find the time and resources to get something new done. This is no small feat in a company that is already operating at top speed to throw something new in and expect it to get done in a timely manner. But, it is possible as long as you come up with an innovative new idea, follow-through often, and do what you can do to assist with the innovative efforts.

Renovation What are some areas that could use renovation within most companies when it comes to project management?

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Project Plan Templates – Many years ago somebody had a great idea to put together the latest and greatest starter templates to work within your company. These templates worked great…5 years ago. Since then they have been put on the shelf and not updated since. Much has changed over these past 5 years. This is a great opportunity where you can start renovating as a project manager. Dust those old templates off, throw out the bad, keep the good, and update them to be even that much more accurate for the new projects that are starting.

Outdated Processes – In a similar fashion as project plan templates, there were great processes and procedures that were put in place a number of years ago that are now badly in need of renovation. People are probably doing things just because they have always done them that way, or perhaps not doing something important that needs to be addressed now as circumstances have changed. This is another great area where you can make a huge difference and hone your techniques for project management by bringing this processes up-to-date.

Administration The last of the 3 techniques for project management have to do with administration. This is probably the less glamorous of the other 2 techniques for project management but it is important nonetheless.

Administration focuses on: Ensuring the Results of Innovation are Working Properly– If you’ve identified something brand new that you want to implement as a project manager in your company, then the last thing you want is for it to fall flat on its face. These are the activities that are related to you staying on top of the innovation you introduce, and make sure it is implemented properly and producing the desired results. If it’s not, make the necessary adjustments. If it is working properly, then focus on letting relevant stakeholders know the results.

Ensuring the Results of Renovation are Working Properly -It’s sometimes more challenging to change something that already exists than it is to introduce something entirely new. You will need to stay on the administration side of things at this point to

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make sure people are accepting the changes, have been properly trained, and are comfortable with how their daily routines have been changed due to this renovation.

Innovation, Renovation, and Administration are three very broad techniques for project management. If you embrace the spirit of the three words above you will find yourself always on the lookout for those areas you can change and improve as well as the best way to track and monitor the progress that has been made.

4 Ways to Perform a Preemptive Project Management Job If you have a project management job where part of your responsibility is managing projects on behalf of your company’s clients, then this is a great place to start exercising preemptive project management. Clients will typically not be involved in the day to day goings on of the project that you are managing on their behalf. But, they have an insatiable need for knowing what is going on with their project.

It’s up to you as the Project Manager to let them know. This could be as simple as a preemptive phone call to inform them of the latest. Take this opportunity to let them know a particular milestone was reached, or perhaps there is a risk that surfaced on the project that they need to know about. They may not necessarily like the news, but they will appreciate the fact that you called them ahead of time informing them of the current status or issues surrounding their project.

The alternative to performing this type of preemptive project management job is for them to call you. They may have to leave a message. You may be busy working with other clients. They have to call back again and leave another message. Their anxiety is beginning to escalate because they haven’t heard back from you yet. They then choose to escalate, taking their concern of you not getting back to them up the management chain at your company. This, of course, opens up a whole new set of issues that you don’t have time to deal with. You can preempt all of this pain by just making a simple phone call.

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Plus, it doesn’t need to be a phone call either. An email will suffice, take them to lunch, or even a quick text (‘project is 2 days behind but will catch up’) is all it takes to put their mind at rest. The options are endless about how you can preemptively keep someone informed about the status of their project.

Take them Off Hold for Moment What if you are genuinely busy or even slightly overwhelmed? If you are overwhelmed, long-term you need to talk with your manager about getting that resolved…but shortterm there is even something you can do about that when it comes to performing your preemptive project management job. Take the person off hold and tell them you’ll be right with them.

You can do the same thing with your project management job. You may get into the situation where someone has been “on hold” for a long period of time. Let them know that you know they are there, you understand their concern and their issue, and you’ll be able to help them. It may not be on the time frame the client would like, but they know their turn is coming up. This will perform wonders when it comes to preemptive project management.

Create Preemptive Project Management Systems Most people in the business world like a routine. Meetings are scheduled the same time each week, reports are due the same time each week, and you get paid the same time each week. Schedules are good. In your project management job, make sure you have implemented a preemptive project management schedule as well.

What does this consist of? Start with a regularly scheduled status meeting with the client. This could be every week, every two weeks, or possibly every month (a month may be too long, however). Then, throw in a regularly scheduled project status report that includes the key metrics you’ve all agreed to as being important. Finally, set up a quarterly executive review where project sponsors and other stakeholders can be apprised of the latest with the project and any assistance that may be necessary from them.

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What does this do? It minimizes the ad hoc, one-off phone calls asking about the project status. If a client knows that they have a weekly meeting on Wednesday to discuss project status, they will most likely wait until that meeting to hear the latest. Plus, they know they will also have the opportunity to bring up any questions or concerns they may have as to how the project is progressing.

Keep these meetings simple. You should have systems and processes in place that quickly provide you the information you need to get everyone on to speed quickly.

These meetings can be no more than 30-minutes and the reports can be a one page summary of current status, next steps, risks, and open items for discussion. Some people on their project management job feel as if they need to burn through reams of paper providing an update on everything under the sun. This is a waste of time. Focus on the 80% that is important and the 20% that is unimportant will fade away.

Beat Them to the Punch One thing that may feel like warfare in your company is when something goes terribly wrong on a project and there are different stories and or reasons why. This is when the “blamestorming” sessions begins and everyone starts to run for cover. Take this opportunity on your project management job to perform preemptive project management as well.

Create the opportunities to meet with the executives or project sponsors that this project rolls up to. Make sure that they have the fact set from your point of view. You never know how someone else is going to paint the picture of what happened, and it’s incumbent upon you to provide your input at this time as well.

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6 Tips for Creating a Project Budget Without a clear project budget you will find it impossible to manage your project work.

One of your first tasks on the project will be to work out how much the whole thing is going to cost. Even if the project sponsor already has a budget in mind, you’ll still want to do your own calculations simply to check that the sponsor doesn’t have an unrealistic view of how much he or she will have to pay out to get this work done. Here are six tips for creating a realistic project budget.

1. Don’t Do It Alone Just like your project schedule, you can’t create a budget alone. Who knows how much the quality control software is going to be? Your subject matter experts, that’s who. When you have your work breakdown structure or at least some idea of the requirements, you can call your team together and work together to come up with the costs. Involve whoever you need to in order to get realistic estimates.

2. Work Out the Deliverable Costs There are two types of costs that your project will incur and the first type is the cost of delivering the product or outcome. Say you are building a house. In order to build it, you need to buy some bricks, concrete, roofing tiles, paint and lots of other stuff. These are all costs of producing your final product and are categorized as deliverable costs. In your project this could be purchasing software, hardware or equipment.

3. Work out the Project Management Costs The second type of cost is the cost of running the project itself. In our house example, a project management cost would be the fees paid to the architect and project manager, hiring the digger, travel costs for the builders and training for the junior carpenter.

These are all costs of doing the work and stop when the project is over. In your project this could be training, meeting room hire or consultancy fees.

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4. Include the Cost of Decommissioning Don’t forget to put some money in the budget for decommissioning what was there before. In our house example, let’s say that when the new house is built, the old shabby house that you used to live in is going to be demolished. That part of the project will also cost money and that’s something that often gets forgotten.

To take a software project as another example, the cost of decommissioning could involve shutting down the servers that the old software was hosted on, gathering up all the training manuals related to that obsolete product and disposing of them or any other tasks involved in not using that product any longer. As most projects change something or introduce something new, it is worth spending a bit of time working out if the change itself is going to incur any costs. Then you can put these in your budget (and your project plan – don’t forget that you also have to do the work to decommission old systems!).

5. Add in Some Contingency However good you are at estimating your project expenditure, unless you have done exactly this project in exactly this situation before it is very unlikely that you’ll get your budget accurate to the penny. That’s where contingency comes in.

It’s often difficult to work out how much contingency to add to a project budget, and how to add it. The key is to estimate how risky the project is. The higher the risk, the more contingency you will need. Some parts of the project may be riskier than others.

On a high risk phase where you really don’t know if your estimates are any good, add a bigger chunk of contingency. On a lower risk phase, or later in the project when you should know what you are doing and how you are going to do it, add a bit less. This is a good way to justify contingency, especially as the alternative is slapping 10% on the final figure without much science behind it to explain why.

Having said that, if you really are stuck and you have no idea how much contingency to add, 10% is as good a starting point as any!

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6. Know the Process for Spending it!

A budget is great, but at that point it is only some numbers on a piece of paper or stored in an online project management tool. It’s not a stack of real cash that you keep in your desk drawer and pay out to contractors (maybe that’s why it is easier to talk about project budgets than your personal household budget). There is real money involved somewhere, but project managers don’t get to see it!

That’s why you need to understand how you can spend your budget. Once it is approved, you are authorized to use it for your project, and that means you’ll need to talk to your Finance team about the process for spending it. There is probably a process that involves purchase orders, authorization forms and approving invoices and to be honest, it’s probably a pretty easy process. There aren’t that many ways to make a note of what will be spent and then authorize an invoice when the goods are received so don’t let your colleagues in Finance tell you that it’s really complicated! If you don’t know what process to follow, sit down with someone at the beginning of your project and have them explain it. Take some notes of your own so that you know what to do in a month or so when your first invoices start arriving.

Many new and experienced project managers find it daunting to set up a budget but there isn’t that much to it. Work with your project team and other experts in the company to put together a comprehensive list of costs that tie in with what you are going to deliver. The numbers might be bigger, but it is just the same as running a household budget, and if you can do that, you can easily manage the finances on your project too.

Keeping Projects Under Budget Learn tips and hints for keeping your projects under budget at all times by watching this video http://www.projectmanager.com/keeping-projects-under-budget.php

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How to Define Your Project Motivation, Vision, Project Objectives (MVP) is one way to make sure that your project starts off with the best possible chance of success. Having some clarity about the motivation, vision and the project objectives means that you know why you are working on a project, what it is supposed to achieve and how you will demonstrate that you have achieved it. Let’s look at each of those elements in a bit more detail.

Project Motivation First up, motivation. What is the motivation for doing your project? I’ll give you a clue – it is not because your project sponsor says so.

Understanding the reason why the company is investing in this project is essential to knowing why you are working on it. Otherwise, why bother? Projects are expensive, both in terms of the manpower required to run them and the cost to the organization of any resources and equipment required.

It is far easier to motivate your project team (and yourself) if you understand how this project contributes to the company’s strategic objectives. Ideally, all projects should tie back to the strategic objectives of an organization, and yours should be no different.

Ask why this project was started. Who will be affected by it? Talk to your project sponsor and see what he or she says, and then pass the information on to your team.

And if your project sponsor doesn’t know the motivation behind the project, you might want to suggest that you both stop working on it immediately.

Another way to look at motivation is to ask yourself (or someone else) what would happen if the project didn’t go ahead. What is the ‘burning platform’ that has spurred the organization into setting up a project team, allocating a budget, and finding a project manager to make this change? The answer may surprise you.

Project Vision The project motivation is about something that has already happened – some action, activity or strategy that encouraged the company to set up a new project. The project vision is about what is going to happen in the future.

Understanding the project vision helps you understand where you are going with the project, and where you need to get the team to be. After all, if you are asking them to ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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follow you to the end of your project plan, they should at least know where they are going.

The vision is about who benefits from the project and what those benefits will be. This could be information that you will find in the project business case, but you might have to look hard to find it!

Many business cases struggle to justify project benefits in any tangible terms, but there should be some business reason for working on the project. If it isn’t clear from the business case, talk to your sponsor. They probably have a clear idea of what they want to get out of the project, so they will be able to tell you what the end state should look like. If they can’t, that is a sign that they are the wrong project sponsor for the job, or that the project is doomed before it starts. Double check what it is you are supposed to be doing!

The project vision also incorporates what the best solution is (and your project sponsor might not know that bit). Part of your project may be scoping out the best solution for the job using the technical resources available to you, perhaps through prototyping or by running a proof of concept exercise. Or you might find that your solution evolves over time, especially if you are working on an agile software project.

Either way, the end vision should include getting to the best solution, and if that changes half way through the project, be flexible and shift your project plan to accommodate those changes.

Project Objectives Finally, the P in MVP stands for project objectives. You do know your project objectives, right? And everyone in your team knows them? Ideally you should all be able to talk about your project objectives easily – say you were stuck in an elevator with the CEO and she asks you what you are working on.

Could you call up your project objectives and explain them in straightforward terms in the couple of minutes that you have with her before the elevator starts moving again?

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Project objectives shape success. They are the manifestation of how you will deliver the vision, and a concrete example of the motivation for the project made real. They are not something that you can make up by yourself – you will need to involve the team in coming up with the objectives.

Take everything you know about the motivation for the project, plus the vision, any other information that you have from the project sponsor, and sit with your team to work out how to translate all that into some clear objectives for the project.

Setting objectives shouldn’t be difficult. You probably do it for yourself on a personal level every year as part of your performance review, or maybe you set objectives for your team members if you have line management responsibility. Use the same approach to set project objectives. Make them clear, achievable, in line with the project vision, and measurable. When you complete the project you should know if you have achieved them or not, so don’t come up with anything too vague or you’ll never know if you have reached them!

MVP is essential for setting up your project to be on track for success, but it isn’t enough that you alone have this information. Make sure that you discuss the motivation, vision and project objectives with your project sponsor and team so that everyone has a clear understanding of why you are doing the project, how you will get there and what you will deliver by the time you complete the project. Working out your MVP will give you a great grounding for successful teamwork and strong project delivery. Don’t start without one!

6 Tips to Start your New Project Starting a new project is an exciting time. You get to work on something new, perhaps with new people. It’s one of my favorite things about being a project manager – the opportunity to move on to different teams and different initiatives means you really do get to know about all kinds of areas of a business.

However, the start of a new project is also the time where you need to set the tone of the project and ensure that everyone is aligned to their new objectives. It’s your opportunity to begin things in a good way and make a professional start to a project.

Here are 6 tips to consider when you start any new project.

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1. Assemble Your Project Team What is a project without a team? You may already have a good idea of who needs to be on the project team, but if not, talk to your project sponsor about who would be best placed to contribute to the project. You may need to involve other managers as well and ask them to make their own team members available on a full or part time basis to provide their specialist skills to the project.

Think about all the business areas that will need to be represented on the project and aim to include someone from all of them. You may also need some technical resources, so talk to the relevant technical team leaders to see whom you can bring on to the project.

2. Hold a Kick Off Meeting When you have your project team in place, get everyone together for a kick off meeting. This is a great opportunity to have everyone meet for the first time. Use the meeting to do introductions to all of the team members.

There are a number of icebreaker-style games that you can use to get people talking. My favorite is to ask each person to find 5 things they have in common with everyone else in the room. This could be something as simple as liking the same type of food or having children at the same school, but I’ve also done this exercise with teams and found people who have lived abroad in the same country (albeit at different times) and who play the same sports.

It is an easy way of focusing on common ground. If you can get people working together during this meeting, perhaps on putting together a project charter or some ‘rules of engagement’ for the team, then even better! You can also use the time to clarify the roles and responsibilities for each individual as well as the project aims and objectives.

3. Set up Your Project Schedule Your project schedule will need to be created with input from the team, but some of the basic stuff you can put together yourself. For example, set up the right resources in your ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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enterprise project management tool and make sure everyone on the team has access to the online system. You can enter some of the project tasks that relate to project management, such as the preparation of key documents, reporting milestones, the overall structure such as phases or stages and budget milestones.

If your Project Management Office has provided templates as part of the online tool, you can use them to save yourself some work. Once the basic project schedule structure is in place you can work with other people in the team to prepare a list of tasks that can then be transferred to the project management tool for everyone to see and update.

4. Set Up Your Project Filing System Many online project management systems have document repositories or the ability to store documentation in a central place online.

If yours does, set it up now so that you have a strong foundation for your project filing system.

Decide on how you will name documents and whether you will use version control (I recommend that if your project management tool has a version control feature that you switch this on for your project).

Create folders and sub-folders if you need to and ensure that everyone on the team has the right level of access. For example, you may want to grant core project team members access to read, write, delete and edit documents, but some other stakeholders may only need access to read what is there. If you aren’t using an online project management tool, you can do the same exercise with shared network folders (or even paper folders and files!).

5. Write a Project Initiation Document A project initiation document explains what the project is going to achieve and provides some detail about how you are going to get there. You might also hear it referred to as a project charter or a project definition document. Whatever the name, you need one!

It is a good idea to use a template if you have one so that you can save some time putting the document together. The project initiation document should include aims, objectives, key success criteria, an overview of the major project milestones from your ProjectManager.com Š 2013 All Rights Reserved

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schedule, a list of people involved and what their role is, a high level estimate of the budget and a reference to any standards that you intend to use during the project.

In practice, you can include anything you like that sets the scene for the project and helps explain clearly about what you are going to do. Get everyone on the project to agree to the contents and ask the project sponsor to sign it off – it is a great way to confirm that you have really understood the brief and the document helps everyone understand what is expected of them.

6. Create a Risks and Issues Log Finally, your project needs a risks and issues log. Again, use a template if you have one.

If not, you can create a simple log in a spreadsheet package, or any other tool that works well for you and your team.

The log should include key information about the risk and issue as well as your action plan to address it and the name of the person responsible for carrying out those actions.

You’ll also probably want to include the date it was identified. Once your columns are set up, you can start populating the log with the risks and issues you have identified during all your initial discussions and preparation for the project. Work with your team to come up with as many things as possible that might cause problems for the project in due course, and log them all.

Understand the Value of the Project Management Solution You Offer val-ue [val-yoo] noun – relative worth, merit, or importance: the value of a college education, the value of a queen in chess.

—— And, I would add another example to this definition: the value of project management in an organization. That is ultimately what you do by providing your project management services to the company you work for (either as an employee or a contractor) and the project management solution you offer. You need to view yourself as that project management solution, or at the very least a big part of it. That’s why it’s critical that you understand the value of the role that you provide.

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The Danger of Value Decreasing Over Time Some Project Managers may not be valuable. That’s right; they may not bring with them the relative worth, merit, or importance to deem them as valuable. “How could that be possible?” you may ask in horror. Consider the following three areas when it comes to how some project managers may discount their value.

Do Nothing More than be a Scribe The meeting is getting ready to start. There are a dozen people in the room. The projector is firing up. You can feel the anticipation and excitement as decisions are going to be made, issues resolved, and opportunity uncovered. The air is filled with electricity.

Introductions are made and then someone asks “who’s going to take notes?”. Either you volunteer or worse yet, someone volunteers you to do this task.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a big proponent of a Project Manager taking notes because it allows you to shape and mould the direction that project needs to go in after the meeting. But, if that is ALL you do and that is ALL people think you are good for, then that begins to rapidly marginalize your value as a Project Manager.

The value of the project management solution you offer needs to go way beyond just taking notes. You need to provide your input, make decisions, voice your opinion, and be just as engaged and passionate about the success of the project (if not more so), than anyone else in the room. Just taking notes won’t cut it. You may find yourself on the path to losing value as a Project Manager if that’s all you do.

Do Nothing More than Schedule Meetings…with Everyone Meetings are the bane of everyone that works in a corporate environment. There’s a meeting for this and a meeting for that. There’s a meeting about the meeting that is coming up (you know there is) and then a meeting about the meeting that was just held.

In between meetings, maybe people can schedule some productive time to work. Not sure, we’ll be certain to meet about that as well.

Your job as a Project Manager if you want to bring value is not to schedule MORE meetings, but to schedule FEWER meetings. It’s your job ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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to know what is important enough to meet about and more importantly, who needs to be at this meeting. Some will do a shotgun approach and invite anyone and everyone that has even remotely heard about the project. They will then sit there for an hour or two wondering why they are even there, provide no input, and daydream about being somewhere else.

Want to provide value with your project management solution? Find ways to get the right answers without having to hold a meeting. If you do have to hold a meeting, keep them as short as possible and only invite those that need to be there. This will take homework and research on your part and there is nothing wrong with that. That’s part of the value you bring. Make sure the right people are there and make sure those that don’t need to be there can spend time on something more productive.

Just be a Virtual Status Checker It’s the end of the week and your getting ready for your weekly project update meeting.

You start firing off your tirade of status emails to everyone on your team with interrogatory subject lines such as “What’s the status?” or “Where does this stand?”, or “How much longer?”, and a slew of similar questions. You ask for everyone’s status updates so much you would have thought you invented Facebook! My take is this…you shouldn’t have to ask anyone about their status. Why? Because you’re spending time with the team. You are on the front line with them. You know enough of the details of the project to be dangerous and allow you to do everything you can to move obstacles out of their way.

You should always be prepared and anticipate the question about “what’s the status” yourself. Again, free up your resources to do valuable and productive work, not answer email after email about the status of their work.

Not Valuable = Not Included How do you know if people don’t see value in the project management solution you offer (also known as YOU)? You’ll start being left out! People will not freely volunteer information you need, you won’t be invited to ad hoc meetings where key decisions are being made, and you won’t know what happened until sometime after the fact. This is a painful place to be as a Project Manager that can be avoided by making sure you retain your value.

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5 Things You Need to Monitor During Projects Learn how to monitor your projects by watching this video offering five tips http://www.projectmanager.com/5-things-you-need-to-monitor-during-projects.php

What is Project Portfolio Management?

Project portfolio management is the ability to look at each project individually for their particular ROI to the company. Once chosen, project portfolio management will monitor this group of project’s ROI and the contribution toward the company’s bottom line.

The purpose of project portfolio management is to not succumb to the unrealistic expectation that every initiative that is presented to the company can be undertaken.

There are a lot of reasons why projects that may not be in the overall best interest of the company are under consideration.

For example, it may be that one of these projects is a pet project of one of the executives. Or, it could be a commitment that a salesperson made to a client in the hopes of garnering additional business. These projects may support an individual’s personal agenda, but not necessarily tie into the overall strategy of the company.

Regardless, both projects take time and resources to complete. We all know that time and resources are limited. In answering the question about what is project portfolio management; there are 3 main purposes that project portfolio management serves:

1. Ensure Projects are Aligned with the Strategy of the Company There’s nothing more wasteful than working on a project that has nothing to do with the short-term or long-term strategy of the company. How can this happen within a company? What likely occurred is that at some point a particular project was aligned with corporate strategy. Corporate strategy then shifted and somebody forgot to tell the poor souls who were working on this project that the project is longer needed or relevant. It’s hard to believe that this happens, but it does – and it typically occurs during times of restructuring the company, or mergers with another company.

Project portfolio management prevents this type of disconnect from occurring. PPM remains in sync with corporate strategy and ensures that each project supports the company’s direction. It looks at each project from a few different angles and answers ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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the questions of whether this project supports the current strategy of the company, is tied into long-term growth, or if it’s just a bad egg.

Tough decisions need to be made for those projects that are not supporting corporate direction. They need to be cut from the roster in order to free up time and resources for those project that do support the overall direction of the company.

2. Ensures Limited Resources are Assigned to the Proper Projects Another aspect in answering the question about what is project portfolio management has to do with resource assignment and prioritization.

Now that the list of projects has been culled through, you are left with a list of projects that still can’t all be done at the same time.

It’s part of the responsibility of project portfolio management to determine which projects are the most important and then assign resources accordingly. Keep this in mind if it is your responsibility to assign resources across different projects.

Shared resources seldom work very well. This is when one resource is split across multiple projects, multiple project managers, and/or even multiple departments in a company. This is usually a recipe for disaster as one group is going to have needs that get in the way of another group. This will cause frustration and stress for the shared resource and contention between project managers.

As much as possible keep each resource assigned to one project, one project manager, or at least staying within their own department.

3. Ensures Resources are Optimally Deployed Across Projects The final purpose when answering the question of ‘what is project portfolio management’ is to manage the resources that have been deployed across the various projects. This is where common sense project management comes into play.

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It’s now that this common sense project management rolls up information from multiple sources. There’s more of a big picture perspective as the individual projects are aggregated into an overall view of how these projects are performing within the company. This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to the ROI of the projects that have been selected.

The company’s upper management is going to want to have a regular snapshot of how their portfolio of projects is performing. This could be compared to the quarterly statement you receive that lets you know how your investments performed over the past quarter. You’ll have to work with your management team and determine the frequency of these updates. A good rule of thumb is to provide this type of information at least monthly and more frequently if needed.

What is project portfolio management? It’s the ability to choose, prioritize, execute, and report out on those projects that directly support the corporate strategy. It ensures that the ladder that everyone is working so diligently to climb is not leaning against the wrong wall. Think about the project portfolio in a similar manner as your personal investment portfolio. You are looking for the right balance of risk/return that will help you meet your long-term goals. Adopting project portfolio management in your organization will help reach that proper balance!

Project Portfolio Management and Benefit Realization Project portfolio management process is about managing and understanding the big picture. It’s the high altitude view of things. Project management is about bringing the project to completion. Project portfolio management is about determining whether it is the right project to bring to completion. There are a number of things to keep in mind when making this type of decision: 

Do the Projects Support the Strategy of the Company? Every company has a strategy to execute. It is their plan for competing in the marketplace, delivering products and services that fulfill needs, and making necessary changes as the market dictates.

Project portfolio management ensures the right projects are being worked on.

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Are the Skill Sets of our Employees Up to the Task? Another point for consideration when it comes to project portfolio management is to ensure employee skills are appropriate for the projects being undertaken. A company can make the decision to adopt a new strategy, which will rid them of some projects in progress and bring new projects to the table. Project portfolio management is about having the foresight to expect some retraining of employees to accommodate the new projects.

How Long Will It Take To Realize an ROI? The 35,000 foot view of project portfolio management focuses on benefit realization and creating value. Portfolio managers understand that they won’t get their money back the day after a project goes live.

There may be a substantial amount of time, resources, and cash that need to be poured into supporting a project. Project portfolio management will allow for tracking operational efficiencies due to the project being implemented.

It’s up to the project portfolio manager to ensure they have the information that addresses the above questions. How can this be done?

Monitoring Project Portfolio Performance Monitoring and managing a project portfolio is similar to yet different than managing a project. One of the biggest similarities is that there needs to be regularly scheduled meetings to review the performance of the portfolio. These meetings do not need to be nearly as frequent as project status meetings.

Depending upon the size of the company and how many projects are involved, they can occur once every two or three months. Special preparation for these meetings is necessary, as upper management and top executives are typically in attendance. What should be considered at these meetings? The following are a few points to consider: 

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Is the Portfolio of Projects Still Strategic? One of the first concerns that need to be addressed when reviewing the portfolio is whether or not it’s still relevant to the company’s strategy. Strategy can change based upon the current direction of the company. A portfolio of projects that supported one aspect of the business three months earlier may be outdated. The competition may have gone down a new path, so what was needed three months ago is no longer necessary or viable.

Is the ROI Still Enticing? A big focus of project portfolio management is to understand the value and benefits that are being returned to the company. You will want to review the ROI of projects in the portfolio based upon where things stand ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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currently. It could be that a return of 35% has dropped to 20% as a result of higher amounts of time spent on the portfolio and certain cost overruns.

How are Individual Projects in the Portfolio Doing? Project portfolio management also involves understanding the particulars of each project that make up the portfolio. Think about your 401(k) statement: The first page usually includes an ROI percentage that reflects an average of all funds or stocks your money is invested in.

You can then drill down into as much detail as you would like for the individual funds or stocks that are included in your 401(k).

The same principle applies with project portfolio management. You need to provide a general overview of how the suite of projects is doing. However, you will also want to include a summary of each project in the portfolio, which is where project portfolio management software comes in handy.

Include information such as: Is the project on track? Is the project on budget? How much longer until completion?

The management review board can then make certain decisions based upon this information. They can decide to kill a project in the portfolio that is not performing as expected. Or, they may decide to add resources or increase scope for a project that has taken off and is doing better than anticipated.

Isn’t That What a Project Management Office Does?

Based upon the descriptions above it may sound like project portfolio management is similar to what a Project Management Office (PMO) does. Not really. A PMO is much more tactical in nature and project portfolio management is very strategic. A PMO does manage multiple projects at the same time. However, it doesn’t typically pick which projects are going to be managed or decide whether or not they are a good fit for the company.

What a PMO does do extremely well is provide recommendations to the project portfolio management team. The PMO will know which projects are performing well and which projects are sub-par. They have the inside scoop on the prospect of finishing on time and within budget, or if things are getting a bit out ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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of control. It’s the PMO’s responsibility to keep management up to speed with these necessary details.

Top Tips for Portfolio Management Learn about portfolio management and how to manage an entire portfolio of projects based on standard project management principles. http://www.projectmanager.com/top-tips-for-portfolio-management.php

What is Program Management and How Does It Compare to Project Management?

In its simplest terms, program management can be seen as the role or function between project managers, the sales team, and the client.

The company has to be large enough to fund such a role, but the results are well worth the investment. The program manager settles into the role of helping the company (internal or external) realize business value from the projects and processes that are underway.

The program manager has a broader scope than a project manager and is focused on project work, day-to-day operations, and new areas of business within the client, billing, and other business related functions.

But, what is program management compared to project management? The following outline some of those differences and how each role can complement each other:

Programs can (and should) Change Over Time Programs are aimed at providing business value. Business value is derived from providing goods and services to the marketplace that buyers want to purchase.

It’s no surprise that the market changes based upon buyer’s needs. For example, when was the last time you said “I need to buy some thermal fax paper to fill up my fax machine?” Probably at least 10-15 years ago.

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Innovation, buyer’s needs, and a shifting marketplace necessitate change. Programs are put in place to accommodate this change and move respond accordingly. On the other hand, projects are (and should be) resistant to change. Projects are set for relatively short periods of time and need to come to completion in order for the value to be derived from them.

Does this mean that they should never change? Of course not. But, it does mean that projects need to have a certain sense of stability and the ability to come to be finished up so the next project can be started on.

Program Management Success is Based Upon ROI Something every program manager needs to have in their back pocket are ‘the numbers’. What are ‘the numbers”? A big part of what program management has to do with is knowing how your activity affects the bottom line. If this amount of money is spent on a new project or implementing a new process then what amount of money will come back as a result of that investment? The success of the program is measured upon those results being favorable.

When comparing what is program management to project management, the success metrics are a bit different. A project’s success is based upon the ability for the project to come in ‘on time, in scope, and under budget’. It’s the project manager’s job to manage the triple constraint and make sure those three critical elements stay on track.

Program Managers Manage Project Managers Another fundamental difference between program managers and project managers is that program managers will manage project managers. A program manager will be responsible for delivering on a number of different projects that make up the program.

There could be three or four major initiatives under way for the purpose of providing business value.

Rather than manage these projects directly, a program manager will work along with a project manager (or project managers) to accomplish the work. This will involve mid-toProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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high level updates to the program manager where the project manager will give a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ about how things are going with their project.

Based upon how things are going, the program manager can then choose to get involved and escalate stubborn issues for resolution.

On the other hand, in comparing what is program management to project management, a project manager is responsible for managing the technical resources on the project.

These are the people that are responsible for actually getting the work done and are on the front line. This is where the project manager uses all of the necessary skills and abilities of influence, persuasion, and determination to keep the projects on-time, in scope, and under budget.

Program Management is More Political More political than project management? Yes. Not that project management doesn’t come with political challenges, egos, agendas, and a crop of other energy sapping drama, but it does have a greater chance of surfacing in program management.

its

Why? Because you are dealing at a higher level, with higher stakes, and more people involved. Budgets are bigger. Decisions are bigger. Egos are bigger. Agendas may be hidden. You have to navigate not only through your environment as a program manager but you may also find you are pulled into your client’s political environment as well.

Then, meshing the two organizations together can be somewhat tricky at times. A project manager will deal with similar issues, but most likely not quite as complicated or potentially hazardous.

There is always going to be the push and pull that goes on through the normal course of a project between managers and resources. Project managers always have to deal with the familiar refrain of “too much work to do and not enough people to do it”, but time and again make it work.

The above are just a few of the differences when you compare what is program management to project management. If you enjoy jumping into the deep end of the pool and learning how to swim, then you will most likely do well at program ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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management. It’s challenging, each day is different, there is the ability to identify and create opportunity, and you are able to see the results of all your hard work.

What’s the Difference Between a Project and a Program?

There are some big differences between projects and programs. If you work with a Project Management Office (PMO) team then you’ll probably have a good idea of what these are. Here are four of the main differences. 

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Structure: A project is well-defined. You know what you are doing and the Project Charter sets out exactly what the scope and objectives are for the project.

A program tends to have greater levels of uncertainty. The team is also bigger.

The program team is supervising and coordinating the work on a number of projects so while the core team may not have that many people in, the wider team includes the project managers and all the project team members.

Effort: This is the most significant difference between projects and programs. A project represents a single effort. It is a group of people forming a team working towards a common goal. A program is different; it is a collection of projects.

Together all the projects form a cohesive package of work. The different projects are complimentary and help the program achieve its overall objectives. There are likely to be overlaps and dependencies between the projects, so a program manager will assess these and work with the project managers concerned to check that overall the whole program progresses smoothly.

Duration: Some projects do go on for several years but most of the projects you’ll work on will be shorter than that. On the other hand, programs are definitely longer.

As they set out to deliver more stuff, they take longer. Programs tend to be split into tranches or phases. Some projects are also split like this, but not all projects last long enough to be delivered in multiple phases.

Benefits: A project team works towards achieving certain outputs, that is, what you get at the end. For example, this could be a set of deliverables that form a software package, or a new retail branch, or whatever it is that you are working on. The benefits of a project tend to be tangible: you get a ‘thing’ at the end of it. A program ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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team works towards delivering outcomes. Outcomes can be tangible but are often not. The benefits of a program are the sum of the benefits of all the different projects and this could amount to a policy or cultural change, or a shift in the way an organization works.

Similarities Between Projects and Programs All that might make programs seem really different to projects. However, while projects and programs do have differences, there are some characteristics that are similar to both. Here are four traits that projects and programs have in common. 

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They are temporary: Projects and programs are not long term endeavors. They exist for a while until the work is done, and then the project or program structure and the team are disbanded. This is part of what makes project and program work so interesting – you can always see the end and you have the opportunity to work on lots of different initiatives over your career!

They have business cases: This is similar to all the work that a company does, even the business as usual stuff. Projects and programs should only start when they have a valid business case. In other words, as project and program managers, we only work on activities that will add some real value and that have already been shown to make good business sense. There is no point in wasting time working on something that isn’t going to benefit the company.

They are aligned to strategic objectives: It should be easy to see how the projects and programs you work on line up to the company’s strategic objectives. If this isn’t specified in the business case, ask your project sponsor. It should be easy to see that the work your team is doing on the project or program directly contributes to the company’s goals. Otherwise, what’s the point?

They deliver change: This is the big one – projects and programs both deliver change.

You do a project or a program and at the end something is different. This could be something big, or something small. Programs tend to have larger goals for changing ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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the status quo and often include an element of cultural change but the concept is the same.

Do you now think that you can define projects and programs as two different things?

One definition of a program is a temporary organization created to coordinate, direct the work and supervise the delivery of a number of related projects that all contribute to a particular outcome. A project, on the other hand, is a temporary organization designed to deliver a particular output.

The Challenges of Enterprise Project Management Enterprise Project Management is the holistic view of how programs, projects, and even day-to-day operations support the overall mission, objectives, strategies, and goals of a company. The following are some areas that can help you prepare as you make the shift from a small-company project manager to an Enterprise Project Manager.

1. More People Are Involved The greater number of people involved opens the door for much larger accomplishments, but also could allow for greater mistakes and misunderstandings to arise. You’ll want to be on high-alert in the enterprise project management space to over communicate and be accessible throughout the lifecycle of the project to make sure things are going as expected.

2. More Approvals are Necessary Enterprise Project Management doesn’t flow quite as easily when it comes to making changes. There has been a tremendous amount of due diligence conducted on each project to make sure it fits into the overall corporate strategy and objectives. What may seem like a small change to you as a project manager may upset the entire apple cart.

You will find that it is now necessary to run routine changes, regardless of how routine, by project sponsors, project review or governance boards, or other bastions of corporate governance

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It may seem like an extra layer of unnecessary administration, but the intention is good.

The purpose of these approval processes is to make sure that nothing deviates from the intended mission and purpose of each project and how it fits into the overall corporate strategy.

3. More Politics Surround Projects You are now dealing with massive amounts of money, people’s reputations and careers, as well as egos and bravado that are many times the by-product of very successful people whose attitudes go unchecked.

You may find yourself in the middle of a turf war where one VP is looking to overtake some of the responsibility of another VP in the organization. You want nothing to do with this spat, but you are smack dab in the middle of it because the project you are managing supports the hidden agenda of one of the VPs. Yikes.

4. Activities Can Take Longer It’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs in larger companies that the amount of time necessary to get something done will expand to the amount of time that is available to get that particular thing done. You will probably find that there are people in various departments in the company that you have no idea what they do! They may have been on the payroll for years, show up at all the important meetings, say all the right corporate buzzwords, but then never produce one piece of a tangible deliverable for as long as you’ve known them.

The other very real thing that occurs within a larger company is the incessant interruptions and reprioritizations of what is important that occurs on a daily basis. Both activities will wreak havoc on a project schedule and quickly put a project behind the eight-ball. Be aware of this reality in enterprise project management and stay on top of your deliverables on a regular basis to make sure they remain on track.

5. There’s More Scrutiny There’s a whole bunch more people to analyze, critique, offer suggestions, or even sabotage the enterprise project management work you are doing in a large company.

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When you move up to the major leagues there is less room for mistakes to be made.

People watch for errors very closely and you will find they are less forgiving and the consequences could be sizable.

Does this mean that you need to be constantly concerned about making a mistake? Not at all. Mistakes are how people grow. However, you need to be very mindful to not make the same mistake multiple times. There are a lot of people watching that you may not have a direct relationship with who can determine the future of your enterprise project management career.

Enterprise project management is an entirely different way of managing projects than what you may have been familiar with at a smaller company. Bigger budgets, more people, longer durations, and bigger results make it all very exciting. Keep the above five points in mind as you transition to this larger role and you’ll soon find yourself navigating the corporate scene with the best of them!

What is Enterprise Project Management Success?

What are some things you could do once you find yourself in the enviable position of managing a mega Fortune 500 customer? Here are 4 steps you can use when you are navigating the swirling waters of enterprise project management:

1. Don’t be Intimidated It’s easy to become intimidated whenever you move into the arena of enterprise project management and start working with larger companies. There are some things that could be a bit overwhelming…For example, just the whole process of getting to meet with your project sponsor. You don’t pull into their parking lot, park your car, walk into the office and ask for whoever you are meeting with (who quickly pops into the lobby to bring you to his office around the corner like you do a small company).No, rather you pull into their “campus”, circle around an overcrowded parking deck or parking lot in search of a space and then walk a mile or so to the entrance. You then enter into a cavernous lobby with larger than life posters spewing the corporate propaganda and marketing campaign for the current fiscal year.

You need to check in at the security desk for a retina and bio-metric scan (OK, maybe that’s pushing it), but they do want your license and signature as well as who you are ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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seeing and the time you entered. Then, you sit and wait in the massive lobby for your benefactor to pick you up.

You stare across the expanse at the other poor blokes who are going through dry-runs of their presentations, going through last minute calculations, and sweating profusely.

The Wizard of Oz doors open and a friendly face emerges. You’re in! You make it to the elevators and take the 10 minute walk to their office. Intimidating? Initially, yes. But, what you will quickly find when it comes to enterprise project management, is that even the largest companies are just as disjointed, disconnected, and reliant upon patches, workarounds and e-mailed spreadsheets as smaller companies.

Once you realize this fact and that you are not working with the entire company of 10,000 people but rather a small group of about 50 people your blood pressure will quickly get back to normal. You can now focus on the task at hand and get to work on the project you have been sent there to implement.

2.Transition from Vendor to Vendor Partner “Partner” is a word that is used WAY too much these days to describe the relationship that companies have with each other. A partnership doesn’t exist if one party is paying the other party to do work on their behalf. A vendor/purchaser relationship exists.

However, there are two levels of this vendor relationship that exist: 

Vendor: The first is a straight-up vendor. This is somebody that comes in and does a job and then leaves. There is little camaraderie between the teams and the vendor is kept at arm’s length from the organization. Plus, watch out if something goes wrong on the project.

Each party will do what they can to protect their own self-interest rather than open up to each other that there is a problem that may best be resolved in a joint manner. This is not the ideal relationship to have in an enterprise project management situation but it is also one of the more common relationships that exist.

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Vendor-Partner: The second level is that of a vendor-partner. This is when both teams get a kick out of working with each other. One team needs what the other team has to offer and appreciates what the vendor-partner brings to the table. The vendor-partner feels this “vibe” and will go above and beyond to deliver exceptional work. What if there’s a problem? No secrets to hide in this relationship. Either side will admit if they messed up and work collaboratively to get things back on track.

Most relationships will start at the vendor level. The faster you transition to vendorpartner the more successful you will be at enterprise project management.

3. Become Part of Their Team Find your niche and function within the relationship between your two companies.

Specialize in one area and do it extremely well. For example, the other team may sorely lack organization. You specialize in being organized. Freely provide your organizational services to the team. In no time at all, you’ll hear “we can’t start this meeting yet because [insert your name] isn’t here. Let’s find him and then we can get started”.

That’s a great place to be when the team from the large company needs you to be there before they can begin.

4. Lead Their Team Now that you are no longer intimidated by such a large company, are considered a vendor-partner and have become part of their team, the next logical step is to lead their team as it relates to the project you are implementing between the two companies.

Sure, you are always going to be managing your company’s piece of the enterprise project management puzzle, but we are talking about managing their team as well.

Once you have established such a high level of trust you will find yourself being able to give direction to their team members directly, in order to finish the project.

Accelerating Project Success Learn 10 ways to boost the level of your project success http://www.projectmanager.com/accelerating-project-success.php

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An Introduction to Project Management Processes This introductory article to project management processes focuses on the 5 main process areas that are in place to move a project from point A to point B at a very high level. You’ll be able to see how a project moves from one process to the next on its course to completion.

In each of these process areas are hundreds of books and tens of thousands of pages written about the breadth, depth, and nuances of each process area. We encourage you to explore those areas further that you find of particular interest.

Initiating Project Management Processes The first area to consider in this introduction to project management process flow is the initiating process. As the name would suggest, this is the very beginning of any project.

Actually, it’s a step or two ahead before the actual project work begins.

It is during this process that the business need for the project is being clarified and justified, stakeholders that may play a part in the project are being identified, and highlevel expectations and budgets are being discussed.

The type of project this could range from is anywhere from a project that a client is requesting, a request from your company to create a new product, or a way of simplifying an internal process to make it run smoother or take less time.

There are two main questions that need to be answered at this point: 

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Should this Project Even Be Considered? – People will come with all types of projects that they consider important to implement. Some projects are for the greater good of the organization. Other projects may not be quite as noble and are designed to only benefit a very small group of people. Management needs to consider at this point whether the benefits of the project are worth expending the required resources to get it done. They could also contemplate whether there may be a better way to achieve the same, or better, results with less cost being applied toward the endeavor.

Is This Project Even Possible? If the answer to the question above is YES, then the next question is whether this project is even possible. For example, the advantages of the project may be obvious and the number of people who benefit from the project is great. However, it may cost one million dollars to get it done and your ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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company is nowhere near the point of being able to cover such an expense. Or, the idea for the new project may be profound, but the technology doesn’t exist at this point to support the project.

Planning Project Management Processes At this point of an introduction to project management processes is the project planning process. You have answered ‘yes’ to whether the project should be considered and if it’s even possible. You have the green light to move forward. Now you need to start digging into all the activity related to planning the project.

There is a big misconception about the planning process. Many people feel as if the project plan is just the list of tasks that are required to get the work done. It’s the schedule of activities that outline who does what, how long it takes, and who works on the next task. Not so. That’s the project schedule and is just one part of the project planning process.

The project plan is much more comprehensive than just a project schedule. It’s during this process that you put your plans together for ensuring quality as well as how information about the project will be communicated. You define the reasons for your project, the intended results, the required work, and breakdown of roles and responsibilities. Plus, you should contemplate any assumptions, constraints, risks, need for personnel, funds, and other project related requirements.

This process is a big deal when it comes to getting the project right the first time.

Despite the importance of the planning process, many project managers will be pressured to skip this step and move right into executing the project. Resist this pressure (and sometimes even temptation) to do so! You will quickly find that the time you spend during the planning processes will make the rest of the project go that much smoother and faster.

The Executing Process The next process to consider in an introduction to project management processes is those around execution. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. The executing process is actually two-fold:

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There is activity surrounding preparing to do the work and then there is doing the actual work. This is important for a number of reasons.

You wouldn’t imagine a construction crew showing up to work in the morning and their boss saying “OK guys…go do whatever you want. Use whatever tools you have. Don’t worry about how things are done. Just go work”. That would be ridiculous and financially disastrous. Rather, their manager will organize the work for the day, make sure everyone has the proper equipment and tools, and then send them on their way to get their specific tasks done.

In executing the plan, you will need to: 

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Prepare for the Work –This is the stage where you make sure everyone knows their project roles, understand each other’s roles, knows what needs to get done (and how), and has the necessary tools to get the work done.

Perform the Work - It’s at this point of an introduction to project management processes that the work can actually begin! All the resources can start following the path of the work that needs to be performed. Quality should remain at the forefront of this process area as the team works well with each other, you look for opportunities to proactively manage and reinforce positive behavior, and information is shared seamlessly across all involved in the project.

The Monitoring and Controlling Processes The project is now up and running and progress is being made. This process area of project activity concentrates on “budget vs. actual”.

We all know the purpose of a financial budget. You may run certain P&L’s as a project manager at your job, or certainly have a budget set up at home. You establish how much you should spend in each area and then compare what you actually spent. Based upon the difference you may have to make some adjustments to get your budget back on track.

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The same activity is occurring during this phase of the 5 process areas. You will have established certain metrics that must be maintained during the life-cycle of the project.

These may be financial, schedule, number of defects, or a host of other metrics that would be appropriate to your project. It is now your job to compare the performance of your project against these metrics, make any adjustments that are necessary and keep everyone informed as to the results.

The Closing Processes Finally, you make it to the closing processes in this introduction to project management processes. This is where you obtain the necessary sign-offs and approvals to officially deem this project as complete.

You should also compile a list of lessons learned from this project that can serve as best practices for your next project…or better yet, worst practices that you never want to do again. You’ll also want to release the resources from this project to be able to work on the next project. Also the lessons learned from one project to the next are invaluable.

There are the five steps in project management processes that make up an introduction to project management processes. Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, and Close out your projects for the best results!

Understanding Critical Path Management Concepts There are a number of terms that are used when it comes to understanding the critical path method. The following are some of these terms: 

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Critical Path: This is the longest list of sequenced activities that must occur on a project prior to it being complete. These activities have no float or slack time. This means if an activity that is on the critical path takes longer than expected then it will cause a delay in the delivery of the project.

Earliest Start Date: This is the earliest date that an activity can be started. This will be dependent upon activities that are ahead of this particular ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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activity. For example, you can’t put the icing on the cake until the cake has been baked and cooled.

Earliest Finish Date: This is the earliest date that a task or activity can finish. For example, you can’t take the cake out of the oven until a certain amount of time has passed in order for it to be fully baked.

Latest Start Date: This is the absolute latest date that an activity can begin without delaying the completion of the project. For example, if the cake above needs to be baked by 4:00 and it will take 3 hours to bake…it must be in the oven by no later than 1:00.

Latest Finish Date: This is the absolute latest date a task or activity can finish without delaying the completion of the project. Again, in the cake example, it may take an hour to finish frosting the cake. If it needs to be done by 5:00, the latest it can finish baking is 4:00 in order to allow one hour of time for frosting.

Float: This is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without pushing the final schedule back. Items that are on the critical path have zero float.

Non-Critical Path: These are the activities have a certain amount of Float time available to them. If this activity is delayed, your project can still finish on time.

Why is the Critical Path Management Important?

Usage of the critical path management method is important for a number of reasons.

Primarily, you want your project to be completed in the shortest amount of time possible. You can compare it to using the stones to get across the river. You want to choose the shortest and most direct path from one side to the next. Likewise, you want to bring your project to completion in the shortest amount of time possible. The critical path method allows you to: 

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Identify the Longest Pole: There may be a number of poles used to keep up a tent, but the longest one is the one that needs to be in the middle. All the other poles are secondary to the longest pole. The critical path method will let you identify which pole is the longest and allow you to focus in on making sure everything goes just right with those activities.

Keep a Watch on Activities near the Critical Path: The critical path method will allow you to identify those items that will certainly cause a delay to your project. However, it also allows you to keep an eye on those activities that have minimal float time baked into them as well. For example, you could have a task that has only 5 days of ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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float time. Something goes wrong with this particular task and the team struggles to get it done in time. Six days are burned up attempting to bring this activity to closure.

You now have a new critical path as this particular task is now running behind with a “negative” float of 1 day. Knowing which activities are close to the critical path can be a topic for your weekly status meetings. One of the risks that could be discussed is whether one or many of these near-critical path items could indeed slip into the critical path. Then, come up with ways to minimize this risk from being realized as well as a plan to mitigate the impact if it does occur.

Critical Path Management Allows for a Visual Representation of the Duration of the Project: Many programs that implement the critical path method create a network diagram. This will provide you with a visual representation of which activities lie on the critical path, which ones are close, and which ones are safely on the non-critical path.

What can you do if you don’t like the Critical Path?

You may not like what you see once you have scheduled your project using the critical path method. You may find that the project is going to run longer than the client would like to see. Or, there may be a show or event coming up where this project must be complete in order for your company to make a big impact. You have a couple of options.

1. The first is that you can ‘crash’ your project schedule by adding more resources to the project. If it takes one person 8 hours to perform a task, you could have one more person join and cut the time down to 4 hours. This works well in certain situations and not so well in others. If it’s a routine project that just takes time to complete and no special training, then it works well. An example of this would be someone may work in the bindery of a print shop and throwing more people at a collating project can significantly reduce the time for completion. It doesn’t work so well in more technical projects where the time to bring someone else up to speed is longer than the actual time to finish the task.

2. Another option is to fast-track the project. Use the critical path method to identify every possible instance where items on the critical path could perhaps overlap. It may not have to be a lot, but one item may be able to start just before the previous item ends. If you find you can do this for all the critical path tasks then you may find that you can shave off a considerable amount of time from the schedule.

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Overcoming the Challenges of Online Project Management Recent studies by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics has indicated that nearly 25% of American workers are telecommuting at least some portion of their work-hours each week.

This means that 1 out of 4 workers are spending some time at home each week on tasks that would have previously been carried out at the office or other location of employment. This type of work behavior was unheard of just a handful of years ago.

This is something that all businesses need to take seriously because once workers have been able to successfully work from home, it’s hard to get back into the office commute routine.

Take Atlanta, Georgia for example. There are a number of people who live in what is termed as ‘inside the perimeter’. This is the Interstate loop that goes around the City.

The people that live inside the perimeter are fortunate enough to have relatively short commute times into the office. Those who live ‘outside the perimeter’ can expect to have at least 45 minutes to up to 1 ½ hours ONE WAY into the office! This means 1 ½ – 3 hours are spent each and every day getting back and forth to work.

Let’s just take an average of these two times and assume 2 ¼ hours are spent each day commuting. This comes up to over 11 hours per week on the road for a 40+ hour work week! This is one major reason why people are opting (and employers are allowing them) to work from home.

People in the Information Technology sector are on the forefront of this shift which has led to a unique set of challenges for online project management.

How can you effectively manage projects among people that rarely see each other faceto-face? Is this even possible, or is it something that will come to a disappointing realization that it doesn’t work?

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Can Online Project Management Work?

Let’s answer this question with a resounding…YES. Online project management can be very effective.

Over a decade ago many IT projects were being outsourced to other locations outside of the US. It took creative project managers to come up with ways to figure out how to manage projects with people that are thousands of miles and multiple time zones away. Some project managers did very well in figuring this out and others are still working out the kinks.

Regardless, managing projects across multiple locations has become par for the course.

Resources are typically spread across multiple offices over many States. Plus, there’s the team member that may be working from home due to sickness or other personal issues and is able to move forward with the projects they have been assigned.

Project managers and team members have become instrumental in making this new way of working…work.

Tips for Online Project Management The Internet is something many of us take for granted. It really wasn’t that long ago when the Internet was just starting up.

Remember your first web page that displayed “hello world?” It was absolutely amazing to be able to put something as simple as “hello world” out there for everyone to see!

Now, 20-25 years later the Internet is Wide Open. Free conference calls, free video chats, enormous file transfers and the ability to control each other’s computers are the way we get things done these days. The Internet obviously paved the way for online project management. But, there are some challenges when it comes to online project management.

The following are some challenges you may encounter. Follow our tips to overcome the challenges of managing projects across different locations and time zones using online project management tools ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

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Different Schedules Time zones that vary by 3-6 hours can become very challenging when it comes to finding the block of time available to schedule meetings, conference calls and get collaborative project management work done.

When teams are not used to working together this way they will throw out a certain time to meet. “How about 10 AM”, one team member in South Carolina will say to another team member in California. “Sounds good” ends up in “where were you?” when one party was on the line and the other wasn’t.

Solution: Find that window of time that works for both locations. It may only be an hour in the day that the work schedule overlaps. Just know that this is the window that you will have your conference calls and opportunity to meet with the other location. Hint: Microsoft Outlook allows you to display multiple time zones next to each other in their calendar.

Select the calendar view > right click on the Times on the left side > select Time Zones to display the window “Multiple Time Zones” Tick the box to “Show an additional time zone” select the time zone that applies and Voila! Scheduling across multiple time zones just got that little bit easier.

Multi-Tasking Multi-tasking is the bane of any online project management exercise. “Huh?” says the team member on the other end of the line. “Sorry, I was on mute. Can you repeat the question?” Huh? They were on mute so you have to repeat the question? You don’t have to repeat the question because they were on mute; you have to repeat the question because they didn’t hear you. They were multi-tasking. They may have been checking email, engrossed in an Instant Message conversation or even carrying on another phone call or stepped away from the phone. There are a host of reasons why people didn’t hear you. It’s up to you to manage this type of behavior.

Solution: There are a number of ways in online project management to make sure your team members are tuned into the conversation at hand.

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1. First, you can have them run part of the meeting. This will at the very least keep them engaged in that section and give them a feeling for how it feels when others may not be paying attention to what they are saying.

2. Second, if you are on with a client and you know there is a question that they need to answer…you can say their name first. “Bob, I know we’ve been talking about this for some time now, what do you think we should do here?” puts them on notice that a question is coming their way and for them to snap out of whatever they were doing. Is this the best way of performing online project management? No. Ideally, they are engaged in the conversation all along the way. But, this is an alternative to give them a wake-up call that they need to tune into the conversation.

3. Third, and I don’t like this one, you can have your conference calls on a live video chat. I don’t like this one because it implies that you don’t trust your resources and it takes some of the appeal of working from home out of the equation. Nobody wants to see you in your baseball cap and sweatshirt, but that’s what they’ll get if they video conference you in.

The bottom line is that you need to find people that are trustworthy, engaged and responsive in order to work from home and you won’t have to deal with the multitasking issue.

Bad Connections “Sorry, can you repeat that? I have a bad connection” should not be something that is uttered in online project management. It’s an assumption that everyone has very good Internet connections, phone connections are impeccable and there are no technology obstacles to making this work.

Solution: If you are fortunate enough to work from home, set your home office up the way you would your office at work. Make sure it is quiet, private and professional. Resist the urge to take a call on the road while you are running some errands around town.

People can sense when you are dialed in and engaged and you need to make this your primary focus.

Online project management is something that is very achievable. Take the time to train your team with the above guidelines and you’ll end up with happier and more productive teammates.

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30 Day Free Software Trial There are two key differences between ProjectManager.com and its competitors.

The first is that we give you all of the features you need to plan, track and report on projects efficiently. The second key difference is that our competitors charge a high upfront price as well as annual maintenance fees for new releases.

Here at ProjectManager.com we offer you all of the features you need to manage projects, at a small monthly price of just $25 per user. That simple! When you sign up to ProjectManager.com, you also get for free: Unlimited Projects 3 Gigs of Document Storage Client Login Free Upgrade to New Releases

Take Action, Sign-Up for a 30 Day Free Trial Today!

Take a Free Trial Create your own Projects Sign up to boost your project success Any questions? Email support@ProjectManager.com and one of our friendly support staff will be happy to help. We also recommend a visit our resource library if you would like access to further: project management tips  video tutorials  project management templates

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