Coping with Demanding Project Spsonsors

There is nothing wrong with executives asking a great deal of their project managers. The problem comes when executives deflect project managers away from best project practices. In the videos we made available this week, you see three project managers trying cope with a project sponsor who doesn't want to plan or discuss scope. Instead the executive wants due date commitments without defining project outcomes, the resources the project manager will have to deliver it. See how they handle it.

Take a look at the Sponsor from Hell video then critique the performance of the PMS.

Best Regards,

Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Designing the Work Breakdown Structure

Some people build a work breakdown structure by listing everything they can think of that the project team might do. Others go from office to office assembling wish lists of goodies that people want and make that into a work breakdown structure. Either way, these PMs launch their project with a long "to do" list WBS. Accountability is unclear, performance expectations are vague and the process of gathering more items for the WBS never ends.

There is a better way of designing your work breakdown structure so it support crystal clear accountability and a management style that lets the PM hold people accountable for end results not frenzied activity. Read the article about Designing your Work Breakdown Structure and then add your comments pro or con.

Regards,

Dick Billows, PMP, GCA
President 4PM.com

Change Control & Satisfied Customers/Users

Many project managers face an impossible change control challenge. On one hand, the users/customers present the project manager with a new list of additional requirements and changes every week. They're always sure that the PM can squeeze in the new items without making the project late or over budget.

On the other hand, all the PM's boss talks about is how important it is to keep the customers are users happy.So the project manager engages in a never-ending discussion with the project stakeholders about what was, and what was not, included in the original scope.

To learn how to handle these three-way pressures, read this month's PM talk article about change control and then enter your thoughts and ideas here in the project management blog.

Best regards,
Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Project Office

We look at three types of project management office(PMO) and offer ideas on which is right for your organization and which types are a disaster for project performance and project managers.

Regards,

Dick Billows, PMP. GCA
President 4pm.com

Project management methodology

Having a project management methodology to follow is a cornerstone of consistent project success for individual project managers and their organizations. A methodology allows us to avoid reinventing the wheel every time we start a project and it allows organizational level control of project priorities and resource allocation because all projects are consistently planned. Unfortunately there aren't many fully developed methodologies available. The Project-Management Body of Knowledge, published by the Project Management Institute, is not a methodology it's a vast encyclopedia of the best practices in project. In fact, the PMBOK makes repeated reference to organization having their own project management methodologies without providing any.

Our Achievement Driven Project Methodology (AdPM) is unique in a couple of ways. First, it's scalable and gives project managers guidance as to "how much" project-management they should do on different size projects. The methodology can be scaled down for small "puppy projects" where the whole plan is a few lines long. It can be scaled up for hugh "pachyderm" projects and several steps in between. Second, the methodology at all scales maintains its focus on accountability for measured results and the measurement of business value. Third AdPM keeps paper work to a minimum through the use of our templates and dynamic project scheduling techniques.

That focus on measured performance & metrics provides great support for the individual project manager making assignments. It gives team members a crystal clear understanding of the performance that's expected of them. Finally, it gives executives responsible for managing a portfolio of projects a powerful tool for measuring progress accurately in solving problems early.

To learn more about AdPM, watch the video on the five-step ADPM method for small projects.

We also have a video on organizational implementation of ADPM methods

Add you comments about project methodologies.

Best regards,

Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Work Breakdown Structure

This week's video is about the work breakdown structure and the debate about how much detail we need to include. Is the WBS just a big to-do list? Or, is the WBS a list of verifiable business outcomes that we decompose from the scope definition which is also a verifiable business outcome.

There are lots of people walking around who favor the to-do list approach. The idea is that if somehow we can manage to list everything everybody should do, we'll have a successful project. This approach leads to monstrous work breakdown structures. They don't require much thought to assemble and they are quickly irrelevant but they make a very impressive thump, when we toss them on to an executive's desk. These monster WBS are also very difficult or impossible to maintain because at this micro level of detail many many things change each week. Most project managers don't spend the time to keep the to-do list current and so three weeks into the project the schedule and plan are largely irrelevant.

The decomposition approach which is a core technique in our achievement driven project management methodology (ADPM™) takes a lot more thinking. The sponsor and the project manager need to actually decide what outcome they want from each assignment in the project. This goes hand-in-hand with the philosophy of holding people accountable for their end results rather than micromanaging. The resulting ADPM work breakdown structures are much smaller, much easier to maintain and give us unambiguous checkpoints for project tracking.

Add your comments about this critically important project management issue.

Regards,

Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)

When we look at failed projects, they almost always show the same flaw; a "to do" list work breakdown structure. Too many people think the WBS should be a listing of everything that has to be done in the project. That's the wrong way.

The right approach to the WBS is that we are designing assignments for our project team. That is, the WBS is a listing of the "hunks" of the project we will manage, not a procedure for doing the project.

What's you approach?

Dick Billows, PMP