Project Management is an Organizations

Lethal Weapon

Presenter: Kris Bailey MLP, BA, MBA, PMP, ICD.D

Business Owner: AiCon Inc.

Let’s do an inventory

Project Managers

• Small (<$1M, 3-5 people, 2-4 deliverables)

• Medium (<$5M, 6-10 persons, 3-8 deliverables)

• Large ($-5-10M, 10-20 persons, 5-10 deliverables)

• Very Large Projects ($>20M, 20+ internal & external)

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Let’s do an inventory

Type of Projects

• IT applications (new or replacement); e-commerce;

application development; enterprise-wide systems

• Automation

• Organizational change (merger, acquisition, cultural re-

boot)

• Construction

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Let’s do an inventory

• Leaders who sign off on project

• People who work on projects

• Stakeholders

• 3rd party

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Learning Objectives

1. Key characteristics and skills of a PM who keeps a project aligned with scope, expectations and leadership wants / needs.

2. What “value” does a well managed project bring to an organization.

3. What constraints, barriers and risks have I encountered.

4. What lessons have I learned, particularly how to balance life and a demanding job.

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Project

Is

• an undertaking aimed at satisfying a requirement;

• a specific, non-routine, finite, one-time activity performed by people;

• With well defined set of desired outcomes; and

• Constrained by limited resources and risk(s)

For a

• person, department, organization(s) who will use the outcome to

improve value.

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My version of a project

Is an art and is a science, is an attitude and a way of

implementing business decisions. It is a one-time

activity, with well-defined outcomes requiring

interdependency of skills, products and processes.

Competent Project Managers use a project

management toolkit to enable organizations to realize

their vision, as execution matters.

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Why Project Management?

• Growing demand for projects that are complex, take months/years to

deliver, involve multiple parties, cost a lot that deliver integrated

and/or customized goods and services using internal staff and/or 3rd

party vendors.

• Takes Time (duration), cost (internal / external human resources,

capital & operating funds), complexity and quality criteria

matched against

• RoI (revenue & sustainability), RoQ (quality) and RoF (risk of failure).

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Project System

A System is a group of interdependent components.....

each component is dependent on one or more of the

other components to performs its function.

People Cost Integration Time Communication

Scope Quality Risk Context Procurement

1. What component is most often emphasized?

2. Ignored? With what impact?

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Adaptable to Complexity

- # / type persons needed- # & size of deliverables- Complexity of deliverables- Timetable- Task interdependence

Dose of Reality

- Culture- $ needed / available- H-R needed / available- Org. Complexity- Achievable

Projects Need

TeamworkWorking groups or teams – what is yours? (see HBR – On Point, The Discipline of Teams)

OwnershipManagers, Sponsors, Boards

Plans are not successful, People are!

CommittedLeaders

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What does a PM do?

• Project Initiation

• Project Planning

• Project Execution

• Project Control

• Project Closure

• Review and Reflect

COMMUNICATE

Working Group Oversight

Politics

Government

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TimeCost

QualityRisk

Is <

RoI,RoQ

COMMUNICATION

Business Case

Business Case Review

Detail Design

Develop & Build

PilotValidate, Test, Monitor, Adjust

Implementation

Feedback, Learn, Adapt

Project Charter

Requirements

Specifications

Integration

Success

or

Failure

Baseline actualConcept Phase

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A Systems Approach

1. Develop ProjectCharter

2. Select Players

3. Determine Task or WBS

Steps

4. Identify Key Customer &

Suppliers

5. Develop PerformanceIndicators

6. Develop Monitoring &

Feedback Loops

7. Analyze & Manage Risks

8. Develop Performance

Strategy

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Step one

Why?

• To get everyone on the project team aligned

Method

• Identify customer requirements

• Set scope, determine goals

• Determine criteria for success (KPIs)

• Identify key assumptions and constraints

• Identify and analyze stakeholders

• Develop an outcome statement

• Identify barriers to success and potential risks

1. Develop ProjectCharter

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COACH

STRATEGY:INVOLVE

RED FLAG

STRATEGY: COLLABORATE

EVEN KEEL

STRATEGY:MONITOR

ANTI-SPONSOR

STRATEGY:DEFEND

Low

High

High

Pote

ntial fo

r co-o

pera

tion

Potential for threat

Stakeholder Analysis

1. Develop ProjectCharter

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Communications

INFORMAL

• More than 60% is informal

• Undocumented and spontaneous

(chatter)

• Talking maintains integrity of

relationships

6. Develop

Monitoring &

Feedback LoopsFORMAL

Documentation of project meetings, memoranda and other visible interactions

Assure that the right people get

accurate information at the right time

• Project Report

• Regular Project Mtgs.

• Townhall Meetings

• Newsletter, Chat rooms, file sharing

• Executive Summaries

Nobody ever died of over communication

Learning cannot occur without feedback

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Risk

• Definitions

- Factors – are particular events, situations, processes, which have

the potential to adversely affect the outcome of a project

- Risk is equal to the sum of possible factors on the project

Risk = sum of (impact of factors probability of occurrence)

• Uncertainty is the parent of all risk

• Not everyone can manage risk, so project managers must

gauge client tolerance for ambiguity – but not ignore it.

Faced with uncertainty, we so often

resort to arranging the deck chairs

on our Titanic project ship.

Former Project Manager

7. Analyse& Manage

Risks

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Risk

In general there are

• known and unknown factors

with

• known and unknown risks

Risk management involves

• Identification of risks

• Analyze and quantify

• Respond and mitigate

• Monitor and adapt and/or fix

The only real enemy of the known-

factor-known-risk, is denial.

Unknown

Known

UnknownKnown

Your duty

What if’s

Explore theFactor

Focus onthe Risk

Factor

Risk

7. Analyse& Manage

Risks

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Story 1 - Success

• 3rd party representing 1- client (private sector US-based organizations)

• 3 PM’s –client (lab), client (build) -construction

• Project (concept to go-live):

- Design/Build greenfield 20,000 sq ft

facility (all 3)

- Select, purchase Total lab automation

solution (me)

- Workflow re-design / Lean (me)

- Retool workforce (me)

- New information system / automation

middleware (me)

- Relocation and implementation

- $25 M; 3 years from concept to

operational go-live

Architectural Showcase for Clinical

Laboratories: Won ‘Citation of Merit’ in

HealthCare Design – international

Construction Design of Merit

Considered the “go to laboratory” for

innovation, design and efficiency

Project was delivered early

Project was delivered under budget

Project working groups were fully engaged

with developed leaders

No staff quit

All systems worked

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Skills

A successful project manager is one who intuitively understands and demonstrates the attitude, behavior and commitment of project

management.

1. Project Leadership - vision, strategy, project decision makers, execution and reporting

2. Communication – clarity, top-down & bottom-up, 3rd party, stakeholders

3. Systems thinking - scheduling, prioritization, resource management, connections and assignments

4. Risk Management – issues identification - resolution & high level control

5. Persuasion and Negotiation – people leadership, conflict resolution

There are others …

The selection of a PM is one who can get you where you want to go and what they can do NOT what they have done.

Eric Kikuchi Linked In

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Story 2 - Unsuccessful

• 3rd party representing 2- US client

(hospital academic organizations)

• 4 PM’s – client (build), client (lab), client

(IT), construction

• Project (concept / detail design ONLY):

- Design/Build greenfield 15,000 sq ft facility

- Select, purchase Total lab automation (me)

- Workflow re-design / Lean (me)

- New information system (client IT) /

automation middleware (me) – 43 mission

critical identified projects

- $20 M (construction); 1 year

• Risks included integration and go-live of IT

systems, timing, decanting from hospital

site; potential loss of “promised” revenue of

$12/month from Outreach / Sales

Concept / design detail delivered on-time

≠ Intensive, micromanaged project from

Sponsor

≠ Real decision makers were unknown to the

contract PM (me)

≠ IT / client not in sync (including outsourcing

of client IT to 3rd party); IT / telecom /

automation vendor order & contract issues

≠ Project was not approved by the medical staff

≠ Management issues with the unions

≠ Sponsors, management and physicians

needed a PM on-site at their beck and call

≠ Project working groups were NOT fully

engaged

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Aptitudes

1. Calmly, work with and through people!

2. Be relentlessly organized & disciplined.

3. Use logic and critical thinking.

4. Have a sense of humour.

5. Be comfortable in uncertainty – life is messy!

6. Be patient – Listen - stay with the questions, the rhetoric & the fears.

7. If 3rd party, learn the local constraints & assumptions – FAST; be prepared to fall on your sword to save the internal team.

8. BE authentic – if bad news, be clear and early.

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Story 3 – 70 (success):30

• CEO (me) as PM and Sponsor for the

company (private sector organization)

• 2 PM’s – client (me), client (IT – 3rd party)

• Project:

- Network upgrade (IT)

- New information system, 47 hospital interfaces

and CRM (IT)

- New Finance system with integration to Ops (IT)

- E-commerce – QM & Risk Management

- Workflow re-design / Lean (me)

- Website updating and new website for new

business line

- $1 M

• Risks included timing, 47 foreign hospital lab

interfaces, integration and go-live of IT

systems while launching a new business

Small company, with limited H-R and $

resources but with big hearts and can-do

attitude

√ Network upgrade, new info system with 47

interfaces and workflow redesign and

finance system were done on time and on

budget (including a government grant

handled via MentorWorks)

≠ Integration of Finance / Ops PROBLEMS;

costing overage of $500K (unknown risk)

≠ Risk Management not implemented

≠ Legacy web-site not implemented

• CEO: PM, sponsor and board liaison

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Constraints & Barriers

• Management’s words do not match their actions

• Underestimate scope and resources

• Unknown risks

• Lack of accountability to scope, time & resources

• Conflicting goals and priorities

• Inadequate and inappropriate communication

• Detractors, saboteurs – passive aggressive are the worst

• Unexamined and unknown assumptions

• LIFE … lack of scenario planning

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As per Harold Schroeder (Linked In)

The most commonly cited reasons for failure of complex projects:

• Managing People

• Team members from multiple organizations, working from a variety

of locations, often crossing national boundaries, who are multi-

lingual and multi-cultural

• Reconciling organizational cultures

Formula for success (smooth implementation, achieving

business objectives and generating intended value)

Project management is a combination of Art (culture & people) and Science (best practice business + PM tools + techniques)

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Why Projects fail?

• Not Motivating the project players

• Poor communication (listener and questioner)

• Insufficient resources (type, number and duration)

• Ignore cost, quality and time; scope creep

• Lack of integrated planning, development and execution

• Insufficient support senior management where leadership has ‘Lost the plot’

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What did I learn?The Good

• Remain calm and positive

• Always keep the outcome centered

• Keep focused

• Learn the culture

• Know the players and the sub-plots

• Get referrals, if 3rd party (reputation and income)

• Leaders are the architects of strategies & activities that spur innovation and growth

• Be a great communicator and coordinator

• Run common meetings

• Use stage-gate approaches to risky and highly technical projects

• Create opportunities for growth and partnership.

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What did I learn?The Not so Good

• Over-controlling leaders (sponsor group, CEO, Boards)

• Not understanding the culture (sometimes it is well hidden)

• Not knowing the power brokers and the control owners

• Great PM’s ≠ Ops leaders (get caught up in the day to day)

• Being an internal project manager is good for understanding

the context and knowing the resources but may not have

positional power with leverage (sometimes viewed as just a

staff position!)

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3030

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Tom Peters, on project management

• Seeing the big picture and the small detail;

• Providing inspirational leadership one moment and detailed management the next;

• Holding autocrat / delegator roles dependent on the circumstances; and

• Handling complexity while keeping the rules simple.

In Search of Excellence

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Value is a Lethal Weapon

• Canada GDP is 2-3%; balanced deficit to GDP – tough to deliver complex

projects on time, on budget, to specifications with RoI and RoQ.

• Replication of products, services and pricing strategies can be easily

copied and beat by the competition.

• Time (duration), cost (internal / external human resources & capital &

operating funds), complexity and quality is managed with positive

rewards of RoI and RoQ with staff enthusiasm / ownership.

• Realizing vision and executing business objectives sets companies apart

from their competition.

• Operational leadership ≠ Project Management & vise versa

• Successful project management is HARD.

Replicating a PM talent and behavior is nearly impossible!

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Project Management Trends

• Business Agility – effective in boosting communication, making teams more

receptive to change and improving RoI; caters to younger workers; proliferation of

tools using AI while automating project management decisions

• Leverage Staff Strengths – recognize employees vs hierarchies; people deliver

projects – they are invaluable

• Focus on Project Strategy – org’s are constantly affected by competition, lack

of resources and time / budgetary difficulties – focus more on reaching corporate goals

• Accountability and Social Responsibility – and RoI too

• Remote Project Management Tools, Labour & Security –

recognizing a more mobile workforce

• Contemporary Leadership

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This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Poem

Condensed version of Charles Osgood’s poem

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Thank You

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Presenter: Kris Bailey MLP, BA, MBA, PMP, ICD.D (on Linked In)

Business Owner: AiCon Inc.