Proactively Manage Project Resources Without Authority

If team members are missing their deadlines you must first try to determine the cause. For example, if it is due to a lack of skills, this should be addressed through training or replacement resources. If it is because they do not fully understand the expectations you have, then you may have some changes to make as well.

Although the team members do not report to you functionally, their work on the project should still be input into their overall performance review.  You can try to hold people accountable by making sure they understand that you will be providing performance feedback into their review. This should also be reiterated and agreed to by the functional managers

From a process management side, there are project management techniques and processes that should be utilized. First of all, if the availability and performance of the team is in doubt, you should raise this early as a project risk. As part of risk management, you need to put a proactive plan in place to make sure that this risk is addressed. When people miss their deadlines and your deadline is in jeopardy, you may need to raise an issue and perform issues management. During issues management, you again look for the cause of the problem and try to resolve it.

In addition, make sure your team members are communicating proactively with you. In many cases, it is not the fact that people miss their deadlines that gets you frustrated; it is that the team member does not tell you ahead of time. If the team member communicates proactively, you can see the problem beforehand while you still some ability to help. If he just misses the date and does not communicate, then he is not managing expectations as should be done. By the same token, the project manager needs to communicate proactively as well. Communicate well with your team and make sure they understand dates and expectations. Also communicate proactively with the functional managers and make sure they know when there are resource sharing issues or people performance issues.

Matrix management involves a complex and delicate balancing act between project managers and people managers. The project manager usually has limited people management authority in these situations. Even so, it is possible to complete your projects successfully. There are many project management processes and techniques that can help. Utilize them to raise risks and issues when needed. Also, make sure you utilize the project sponsor. The sponsor can help you generate urgency and focus, and can also have an impact on the functional managers to make sure that you have the resources you need to be successful.

Schedule Estimating Threshold

When you create a schedule you generally don’t know enough to enter all of the detailed activities the first time though. Instead, you identify large chunks of work first, and then break the larger chunks into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces are, in turn, broken down into still smaller and more discrete activities. This technique is referred to as creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

A question people ask is how small the activities should be before they do not need to be broken down further. This is referred to as your “estimating threshold”. Work can be broken down into smaller activities than the estimating threshold, but normally no work would be left at a higher level. The threshold can be different based on the size of your project and how well the work is understood.

You can use the following criteria as a guide. For a typical large project (say 5000 effort hours or more) the activities should be no longer than two weeks. Medium and small projects (say 1000 effort hours or less) should have activities no larger than one week. Remember that this threshold is an upper limit. You can break the activities down further if you want.

Assigning work that is smaller than your threshold allows the work to be more manageable. Think about it. When you assign work to a team member you don’t know for sure how he is progressing until the due date (or the completion date if it comes first). (Yes, you can track progress if the work proceeds linearly – like painting a wall. But many of us work in the knowledge business (IT, Sales, Finance) and it is not easy to know exactly how the work is progressing.)

Let’s look at an example. If you assign a team member work that is due in four weeks, you are not going to know for sure whether the work is on time until the four-week deadline. The worker may tell you things are on track, but you don’t really know for sure until the due date. If the work is completed you will know you are on track. If the work is late you will know it then as well. However, four weeks (or longer) is too long to wait to know if the work is on track. A better approach is to break the four-week activity into four one-week activities. Then you will know after the first week if the work is on time or not.

If at all possible you want to try to have schedule work completed within two weeks. If you give someone work that takes four weeks or longer there is just too much time before you really know if things are on-track or not. It is much better for you if you can keep the schedule feedback loop to no more than two weeks.

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Assumptions and Risks – Two Sides of a Coin

Let’s take an example of a common statement that is included in many Project Definitions – that the resources needed for this project will be available when needed. What kind of a statement is this? Most people would say it is an assumption. After all, when a project starts, you always assume you will get the resources you need.

However, is it really an assumption? Can you imagine starting a project where the people and equipment were not available and there was a realistic possibility that they would not be ready when you need them – perhaps because another project needed to finish first? It is not too difficult to imagine that scenario. In that case, the same statement would definitely be a risk – not an assumption.

The same statement might be an assumption or a risk depending on the circumstances of your particular project. There is some degree of uncertainty to an assumption. If the event is negative and there is a low probability that it will happen, it can be stated as an assumption. If the event is positive and there is a high likelihood it will happen, it is also an assumption. One way to identify important assumptions is to perform a risk assessment and look at all the low-risk items. Most of these low risks are not worth mentioning, but some will have significant implications if events do not turn out as you think. These are the ones that you can document as assumptions.

There are two key characteristics of risks and assumptions. First, there must be some uncertainty to the event. If there is 100% chance of an event occurring, it is simply a fact. If there is a 0% chance of the event occurring, it is fiction. Neither are risks or assumptions.

Second, assumptions and risks are both outside the total control of the project team. If the event is within the control of the project team it is neither an assumption nor a risk. It should simply be managed to make it happen.

Review the following examples for more clarity on assumptions and risks.

Manage the Schedule for Small Projects

All projects need a schedule. If you have a small project perhaps the schedule is a simple checklist or Excel spreadsheet. As projects get larger they need more formal scheduling templates and tools.

The processes you use to manage a schedule also vary depending on the size of the project. Large projects need a lot of schedule management rigor. Small projects can use a lighter process. The following steps can be used to mage the schedule of a small project.

1. Review the schedule on a weekly basis.
2. Identify activities that have been completed during the previous week and update the schedule to show they are finished.
3. Determine whether there are activities that should be completed, but are not. Work with the individual that is assigned to the work see what is going on. Determine how much additional effort and duration are needed to complete the work and update the schedule accordingly.
4. Evaluate the remaining work to see if the project will be completed within the original duration. You may find that even though some activities may be completing later than planned, other activities may be completing early and the overall schedule may still be okay.
5. If your project is trending behind schedule, think of schedule management techniques you can apply to get back on schedule. Raise a schedule risk in your status report if the original deadline appears to be in jeopardy.
6. Adjust the schedule so that it reflects the remaining work to be completed, and is as accurate as possible.

Since this is a process for a small project, it would be unusual to have major problems with the schedule. The consequences of problems on small projects are generally small as well.

Define the Objectives of Your Project

Objectives are concrete statements that describe the things the project is trying to achieve. They are included in your Project Charter. An objective should be written in a way that it can be evaluated at the conclusion of a project to see whether it was achieved. A well-worded objective will be Specific, Measurable, Attainable / Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART). (SMART is a technique for wording the objective. An objective does not absolutely have to be SMART to be valid.)

An example of an objective statement might be to “upgrade the customer service telephone system by December 31 to achieve average client wait times of no more than two minutes“.

• Note that the objective is specific.
• The objective is measurable in terms of the average client wait times the new phone system is trying to achieve.
• You can assume that the objective is achievable and realistic.
• The objective is time-bound, and should be completed by December 31.

Objectives should infer the deliverables of the project. In the prior example, the objective refers to the upgrade of the telephone system. If you cannot determine the deliverables that are created to achieve the objective, the objective may be written at too high a level. On the other hand, if an objective describes the characteristics of the deliverables (such as speed or ability to handle a specific number of users), it is written at too low a level. Characteristics tend to be more requirements statements – not objectives.

If the project is a part of a larger program, the objectives of all the underlying projects should be in alignment with the program objectives.

Objectives are important because they show a consensus of agreement between the project manager and the project sponsor on the main purpose of the project. For example, the specific deliverables of an IT project may or may not make sense to the project sponsor. However, the objectives should be written in a way that they are understandable by all of the project stakeholders.

Objectives are also valuable since they provide alignment to organization goals and strategies. Your organization should not authorize projects that do not tie to goals and strategies

The project objectives should be defined and agreed upon before the project starts. The deliverables of the project are created based on the objectives. A facilitated meeting between all major stakeholders is a good way to create the objectives and gain a consensus on them at the same time.

Seven Steps for a Project Quality Review

In some cases, such as a government project, periodic audits may be called for as a part of the overall contract. This “outside party” could be any qualified person outside of the project manager. In some cases, your organization may have an internal project audit specialist. It is possible that the Project Director or the Project Sponsor could also perform this audit. The outside party could be an outside contractor or consultant, but they do not need to be.

The audit itself focuses on whether effective project management processes are being utilized and whether the project appears to be on-track. A project audit asks questions about the processes used to manage the project and build deliverables. The audit can follow this process:

1. Notify the parties (Auditor) – The auditor notifies the project manager of the upcoming audit and schedules a convenient time and place. Other key stakeholders are notified of the audit as well.
2. Prepare for the audit (Auditor) – The auditor may request certain information up-front. The auditor might also ask the project manager to be prepared to discuss certain aspects of the project. This ensures that the actual meeting time is as productive as possible.
3. Perform initial interview (Auditor, Project Manager) – During the initial meeting, the auditor asks the appropriate questions to ensure the project is on-track. If there are any areas that are not on track, the auditor notes them as such.
4. Perform as many other interviews as necessary (optional)(Auditor, Project Team) – On many projects, the audit might culminate in the initial meeting. If the project is large or complex, the auditor might need to perform follow-up analysis. This includes meeting with other team members and clients, and reviewing further documentation.
5. Document the findings (Auditor) – The auditor documents the status and the processes used on this project against best practices. If the organization has standards and policies in place for managing projects, the auditor determines whether any of these are not being followed on the audited project. The auditor also makes recommendations on things that can be done to provide more effective and proactive management of the project.
6. Review draft audit report (Auditor, Project Manager) – The auditor and the project manager meet again to go over the initial findings. This auditor describes any project management deficiencies and recommendations for changes. This review also provides an opportunity for the project manager to provide a rebuttal when necessary. The initial audit findings might be modified based on specific feedback from the project manager.
7. Issue final report (Auditor) – The auditor issues a final report of findings and recommendations. The project manager may also issue a formal response to the audit. In the formal response, the project manager can accept points and discuss plans to implement them. The project manager may also voice his disagreement with certain audit points, and explain his reason why. In these cases, the project sponsor and the project director (manager of the project manager) will need to decide if the project manager should comply with the recommendations or not.

Manage Communication – Large Projects (Part 1 of 2)

In a large project, all communication takes place in context of an overall Communication Management Plan. Status meetings and status reporting are required, just as for a medium-size project. In addition, there are many other types of proactive communication that need to be considered. This creative and proactive communication is laid out in a Communication Management Plan, which is created as follows.

Beginning of Project – Plan Communication

1. Determine the project stakeholders. In some cases these are stakeholder groups such as a project steering committee. In other cases, there may be a single person such as the sponsor.
2. Determine the communication needs for each stakeholder. The project manager can categorize the communication needs into three areas.

• Mandatory. This generally includes project Status Reports, legal requirements, financial reporting, etc. This information is pushed out to the recipients.
• Informational. This is information people want to know or that need for their jobs. This information is usually made available for people to read, but requires them to take the initiative, or pull the communication.
• Marketing. This communication is designed to build buy-in and enthusiasm for the project and its deliverables. This type of information is pushed out to the appropriate people. You need this type of positive communication if your project requires people to change how they do their job.

3. For each stakeholder, brainstorm how to fulfill the communication need. For each stakeholder, determine the information they need to know, how often they need an update, and the best manner to deliver the information. At this point, be creative. For instance, all stakeholders still need an updated project status. The Steering Committee may need an executive briefing to provide strategic direction every other month. The project sponsor may need a personal briefing on a monthly basis. A quarterly newsletter may need to go out to the entire client organization for informational and marketing purposes. 
4. Determine the effort required. Estimate the effort required to create and distribute each of the identified communication options outlined in step 3. Also determine the potential benefit of the communication to the recipient and the project team.
5. Implement mandatory communications. Regardless of the prioritization, implement any communication options that are mandatory for the project. This will definitely include project Status Reports, but there may also be government-required reports, legal reports, etc.
6. Prioritize the other communication options. Discard the communication options that require high effort for marginal benefit. Also discard those that provide marginal benefit even though they may take little effort from the project team. Implement the communication options that provide high value and require low effort from the project team. Also evaluate those options that have high value and require a high level of effort from the project team. Some of these might make sense to implement while others may not.
7. Add the resulting communication activities to the schedule. This will include assigning frequencies, due dates, effort hours and a responsible person(s) for each communication option implemented.

Escalate a Performance Problem with a Formal Plan

One of the hardest jobs of a manager is to take an employee down a path that may ultimately result in termination.  It is hard enough for most managers to provide performance feedback to begin with – even when the employee performance is good.  When the employee performance is not where it needs to be, it is even harder. 

The first thing you need to do when you see a performance problem is sit down with the employee, discuss the performance observations, try to determine a cause and put a short-term action plan in place so that the employee has a chance to turn the situation around. 

Unfortunately, sometimes the initial performance feedback and short-term plan do not have the desired effect.  If this occurs, the manager needs to take additional actions.  In some companies and in some positions, the next step might be a demotion or termination.  This might also be the case at smaller companies where the management team needs to make personnel decisions quickly, and where the company is not under as many obligations from a Human Resources standpoint. 

In larger companies, however, managers normally don’t have the authority to fire employees on their own.  The Human Resources Department normally has processes in place to make sure that people are treated fairly and within allowable legal guidelines.  If a manager tried to resolve a situation on his or her own but was unsuccessful, it is time to bring a formal Human Resources process into play.

Managers sometimes hesitate to take personnel-related actions because of their concern for how the rest of the team will react.  If the employee is a popular one, there is a tendency to believe that the team will react negatively.  In fact, that might be the case if the manager acts arbitrarily.  However, if the manager gives an employee plenty of time to improve his or her performance but the problem does not go away, termination may still be necessary.  In this situation, the manager should be able to explain to the rest of the team how every effort was made in the employee’s favor.  The rest of the team should understand first-hand that the employee’s performance was weak.  Also, they should understand that replacing that employee is in the best interest of the team, the entire organization and perhaps in the employee’s best interest as well.   

A team knows its weak links.  In many situations, the rest of the team ends up working harder to compensate for the person with the weak performance.  In the best cases, the team does so willingly (and perhaps subconsciously), but their actions mean that they cannot be effective.  In the worst case, teammates start to turn against the poor performer, causing resentment, animosity and friction among team members. 

Sometimes a perceived performance problem hits the team member totally by surprise.  However, in most cases, they already understand the situation.  Poor performers should see that they are missing deadlines or that “completed” work requires a lot of rework.  Once they get on a short-term improvement plan, they become keenly aware of whether or not their performance is meeting expectations.  If they still cannot meet expectations, it will become increasingly obvious to them.  This situation will cause them more anxiety, which can drive performance down even lower.  The situation should be resolved as soon as possible for the sake of the employee as well as the organization. 

Remember that putting a formal performance plan in place is not the same as termination.  The performance plan is really a way to save the person from possible termination.  A good performance plan puts everything into black and white, and it should precisely set expectations.  The performance plan should include the length of the plan, the expectations and how the progress will be communicated.                

Once the performance plan is signed, it is activated.  The employee should strive to meet the expectations of the performance plan.  The manager must provide ongoing feedback on the employee’s performance and whether the employee is meeting expectations.  This entire process is set up to manage expectations.  If the employee is not meeting expectations, the manager must continue to say so in the ongoing written feedback.  This ensures there are no surprises. 

Manage Quality and Metrics – Techniques

Gather Subjective Metrics with Client Satisfaction Surveys

Gathering metrics is important because it allows you to see how you are performing against the expectations of your clients. If the world were perfect, all of the metrics you collect would be factual, relevant and accurate. However, in many cases it is impractical or cost-prohibitive to try to gather exact and quantitative numbers.

One way to supplement quantifiable metrics is with client satisfaction surveys. For instance, instead of trying to measure the exact response time of an application against some service-level standard, you could simply ask your main users how satisfied they were with the application response time. It should make sense that if you are rated a 4.5 out of 5.0 (5 being the highest), you are probably doing a pretty good job in this area. However, if your survey results come back as a 1.8 out of 5.0 (5 being the highest) then it should be obvious that you are missing the mark. You did not need a complicated system, metric to tell you that. A simple customer satisfaction survey questions gets quickly to the same result.

In the same way, let’s say you want to gather metrics that indicate the time it takes to resolve client problems. This could involve tracking when the initial request comes in, when you first responded to the client and when the request was resolved. On the other hand, you could simply send out surveys that ask your clients if they were satisfied with the time it took to resolve the problem.

Surveys are by their nature qualitative; that is, they reflect the opinion of the person being surveyed. Therefore, you would not necessarily want to base your entire project success criteria on survey metrics. Some results are more easily obtained quantitatively. For instance, there is usually no reason to send out a survey to the finance department to ask them if your spending is within budget. You should have the facts available to you. However, for many other types of metrics, a qualitative survey question can be used as a substitute for the quantitative metric.

Collecting Project Metrics and Demographics Can Assist on Future Projects

Gathering and reporting a consistent set of metrics at the end of a project can help your organization see the trends for delivering projects over a period of time. The metrics should show how well project teams are meeting their commitments in terms of quality, cost and duration. As more and more projects report the metrics, a baseline will be established that will allow your organization to see how it is improving, or slipping, over time.

If you collect metrics on an organization-wide basis, you should collect some project demographics in addition to the actual metrics. Project demographics are just predefined project characteristics that provide a description on each particular project. If you store the demographics and metrics in a file or database, they can be analyzed to show the overall trends in a more discreet and granular way.

If you do not collect demographics, you can still compare actual cost to deliver versus the estimated cost. The advantage of gathering some project demographics is that you can compare similar projects. For instance, you can compare the cost and effort associated with delivering mainframe development projects versus web development projects. Or you could compare how well projects from the Sales organization meet their deadlines and budgets versus projects from the Finance area.

The other benefit of gathering project demographics is that you can use the information as input into future project estimates. For instance, let’s say you have marketing campaigns for different products. Let’s also say that you have been collecting project estimations and the actual results for cost and duration. If you had this information, you could estimate the cost and duration of a current product marketing campaign by comparing your project with similar projects that were completed in the past. This may be of help for estimating your project. The demographics you capture from completed projects can be used to search on later for new projects. (A sample worksheet to capture project demographics and metrics is available in the Template Library.)

Make Sure Your Metrics Tell a Complete Story

In many instances the project team publishes the results of a metric in a way that does not allow the reader to fully understand whether the results are good or bad. This is because the reader sees a metric, but they do not understand the target and they do not always understand what the metric is trying to achieve. The project manager and project team may know what a given metric is telling them, but other readers of the information may not. One way to help is to always report the metric along with the target. For instance, if you report your current expenditures to date, also include your expected expenditures at this point in the project. If you report that your project has spent $100,000 so far and your total budget is $150,000, the reader still does not have the context to know whether this is a good or bad situation. Sure you are under budget, but the work is not complete either. The better way to report this information is to state that you have spent $100,000 to date and that according to your estimate you should have spent $110,000 at this point in the project. If the trend continued, you estimate the final cost of the project to be $135,000 versus your budget of $150,000. If you report the metrics with this context, your readers can understand what the numbers are saying.

Remember is that it is impossible to categorize everyone within a profession.  You can make some general assumptions about technical people, but this does not mean that the assumptions apply to everyone.  As a manager, you must ultimately have multiple techniques that you can apply to different people in different circumstances.  One technique will not work for all people at all times. 

That being said, let’s make some generalizations about managing technical staff on your project.

• They tend to be introverts.  Generally speaking, the definition of an introvert is one who is primarily more comfortable with an inward focus in life while an extrovert is generally more comfortable with an outward focus.  For example, when introverts receive a lot of new information, they tend to want to think for a while before speaking or drawing conclusions.  Extroverts, on the other hand, are more comfortable expressing ideas to others.  If they jump to the wrong conclusions, they just change their minds.  Basically extroverts are comfortable thinking out loud.  Introverts would rather think through the “rough drafts” in their minds and then talk when they think they have a coherent and logical position. 
• They tend to think more logically than emotionally.  This tendency should be obvious.  Technical staffers typically are not motivated by a lot of “rah-rah” speeches.  In fact, they tend to be cynical of this type of motivation.  They will usually listen politely (perhaps even snickering to themselves), but the effects are short-term.  On the other hand, they can be persuaded and motivated by a logical argument.  If the logical argument can be combined with some motivational techniques, you might have a chance to actually get them excited. 
• They tend to be problem solvers.  This is a great strength of technical staff as well as one of their weaknesses.  Most technical people love nothing better than to be confronted with a problem.  They get excited and they immediately start to apply their problem-solving skills.  The weakness comes in because there is a tendency to jump on a problem without fully understanding it first.  This often can lead to being less than optimal in the use of resources. This is also a reason why technical people don’t like to spend as much time on project planning. They have a disposition to jump in and execute the project instead of spending time to understand the nature of the project first.
• They tend to be technically creative.  This may seem like a contradiction.  Your first thought might be that the sales and marketing staffs are the creative people.  In fact they are – in the sales and marketing areas.  They will also be the first to tell you so – because they are extroverts.  However, the technical discipline requires a fair degree of creativity as well.  This is especially true in the IT world.  In many cases, there is not one best solution to a business problem.  In the development field, for instance, analysts need creativity when they are defining a solution with the business clients.  Designers need to be creative applying technology in the best manner.  Programmers need to be creative as well in trying to apply the best techniques to build the most elegant solution.

Understanding these general characteristics is the place to start if you are a manager of technical staff.  Once you begin to understand how people work and how they are motivated, you can start to think of the best way to manage them.  Now that you have gone through many ideas, here is a summary of some of the general points you should consider as you manage your staff.

• Try to establish an environment where people feel they have what they need to do their jobs.  This includes having appropriate hardware, software, policies, procedures, etc. 
• Technical people like to understand the work processes in the group, and then they like to be creative in working within that structure.  So, set the high-level rules, but don’t micromanage the details. 
• Give people as much information as they need to do their jobs.  Technical staff tends to reflect on this information.  Ask for their ideas and opinions, but give them time and ample opportunities.  Don’t expect them to react immediately.
• Shield the team from office politics and all of the distractions that can abound in a large company.  Tell people what they need to know (see prior point), but don’t get them bogged down in the organization muck. 
• Give people continuous opportunities to learn.  This includes encouraging people to invest the time to learn, but also helping with some opportunities.  There are many creative ways to learn new things.  Once a person has mastered a certain skill or aspect of his job and he starts to become bored, look for ways he can cross-train and learn new areas of the group. 
• Be there when needed and respond to problems and concerns.  Not all problems can be fixed, but many times the simple act of listening and trying is enough.  People will give you credit for trying, even if the ultimate resolution to a problem is not available. 

You might note that many of these management techniques are not unique to technical staff in general or IT staff in particular.  It is true that many of the techniques can be used in other areas as well.  However, they are particularly applicable to the IT staff.