ThoughtLeader Consultants

End-to-End Project Management Consulting

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Dinesh Srinivasan

Founder, ThoughtLeader Consultants

Independent Project Management Consultant

• 13 years of corporate experience in IT Industry

• 5+ years of experience in Program and Project Management. Expert in People-Process-Project Management

• Alumnus, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

• Certified Project Manager from Wipro’s PM Academy

• Work History: ST Microelectronics, Creative, Wipro Tech.

Project Management Issues

• It is no secret that many projects fail to meet or balance the Triple Constraints – Cost, Scope and Time.

• This imbalance drastically affects the Quality of the Deliverables (QoD) and in turn result in Customer Dissatisfaction.

• Many Organizations aware of these problems but not aware of methods to avert or arrest the issues.

ThoughtLeader – Project Management Consulting

• ThoughtLeader classifies the Project Management Issues into– Meeting the Timelines– Quality of the Deliverables (QoD)– Dysfunctions of the Teamand provides pragmatic ways of solving these issues and make the projects successful

Meeting the Timelines

• Estimation– The seeds of timeline issue might be sown in this stage

itself. – Unrealistic Estimates

• In the competitive environment of today’s world, the bidding organizations are forced to provide ‘Aggressive Estimates’ to win the projects. But sometimes it becomes way too ‘unrealistic’ for the execution team to meet the timelines

• ThoughtLeader provides unique competency mapping to the project requirements that help to assess whether the execution team is capable of meeting the timelines and in turn helps to come up with competitive estimates that can be achieved.

Meeting the Timelines

• Planning– If you do not eliminate the potential issues in this

stage itself it’ll sure come back to haunt the Project at a later stage.

– Establish Critical Paths, Assign proven performers to the critical tasks and not load Key Resources > 85%• ThoughtLeader can scrutinize the project plan with a

bird’s eye view and identify ‘potential problem creating areas’ and provide suggestions to eliminate the issues to maximize the probability of the project success.

Meeting the Timelines

• Tracking– This a crucial stage where a lot of chances to screw up

the project! – DSM

• Daily Standup Meeting is a process of Agile-Scrum but regardless of Project Methodologies this can be used as an effective tracking process. ThoughtLeader can train the PMs to conduct this meeting effectively.

– Tracking Sheets• ThoughtLeader can guide the PMs of the organizations to

create sensible Tracking sheets and Project Dashboards with color codes for effective tracking of the projects.

Quality of the Deliverables (QoD)• Possible Root Causes

– Few processes in place and very few are followed. – No effective Review process

• Set up Review Process– Exit Gate Review.– ThoughtLeader can help organizations to set up stringent review process like Exit

Gate Review and phase-wise delivery Checklists to achieve the high quality of the deliverables.

• Creating SME pool– Subject Matter Experts are group of Technical Experts in their respective

domains. SMEs are involved in Requirement Elicitations, Estimations, Design Inputs, Reviews, Technical consultations & Mentoring the team. They’ll not be involved in hands-on coding or team management and also not tied to a single project at a time.

– ThoughtLeader can help to set up the SME pool.

GateReview

Dysfunctional Team

• Possible Root Causes– Absence of Trust – Fear of Conflict– Lack of Commitment– Avoidance of Accountability– Inattention to Results– Lack of Motivation

Dysfunctional Team

• ThoughtLeader has unique solutions to the issues of Dysfunctional teams– Leader-Leader Relationships

• In this setup, each team member consider himself as a leader and is responsible to create other team members as leaders. He does it by sharing his knowledge and know-how to others and it’s mutual. Gradually, the trust issue will be removed and the team wants each other succeed.

– Setting up a War Zone• To overcome the fear of conflict, a war zone will be setup where

the team members are encouraged to confront the ideas openly without holding back. ThoughtLeader can moderate the warzone and make it efficient. This brings transparency in the team.

Dysfunctional Team

– Bottom-Up Drive • The Bottom-Up Drive encourages even the last layer of

the team member to have equal interest as the Top Management in the success of the project. This can be achieved by letting know the team members how their contributions are actually helping the project.

– RACIO chart • Clearly captures the role of each team member with

respect to each module. Inculcates ‘ownership’

RACIO

Dysfunctional Team

– Project Results linked to Appraisal • To overcome the Inattention to Results issue,

ThoughtLeader recommends the project results to be one of the factors of Performance Appraisals. ThoughtLeader can conduct a bias-free audits on the project management and recommend the ratings with respect to project results to the Appraisal committee.

– Reward Program• To motivate and retain motivation ThoughtLeader can

set up unique way of rewarding the team members who bring success to the projects.

End-to-End Project Management Consulting

• For the organizations which expects a bit of handholding & guidance on Project Management, ThoughtLeader can provide End-to-End Project Management Consulting that includes…– Setting up the complete Project Management Process

(ex., PM process flow, SW process flow,…)– Various Meetings (ex., Kickoff, Risk Review Meeting,

Touch-base Meeting, client meeting…)– Training to PMs and team on the PM processes– Project Audits and reports

THANK YOU