Keep it simple..........please!

Yes, too often project management structures are complex and do not support the project manager in their delivery. Look at the diagram below.

This shows a simple linear structure with the project board at the top and the project team at the bottom of the tree. At first site this look fine until you realise there are 15 members on the Project Board! Before anyone tells me this is impossible I have to say we frequently find this number on Boards This is far too many and people say to us that the large numbers are stopping a key activity of the board i.e. making decisions.

Project Boards should be around 5 people. So who are these other 10? We have investigated this with a number of project managers and discovered:

*they are stakeholders who represent key groups either in the business or are in partner organisations

*they are people who want to be involved but actually are hindering project progress - in actual fact they have no interest and will not be impacted by the project. Our questions here to project managers is why are these people involved?

Can the person who represents the function or group make decisions? Our researches (questioning of people who talk about this) suggest not! What they tell us that the person says something like:

*I will need to go back and check with my Director we can do this. Or maybe...

*I am unsure how we can deal with this. Let me get back to you once we have consulted in our organisation

In both cases, this does not help in the management of the project. These people are actually stopping project progress by having to go back to the various bodies they come from; say the internal finance or marketing department or the partner organisation providing say a design service.

So, what should be done! Have a simpler project management structure. Something that takes out from the project board people who are clearly stakeholders. When working with project teams we have identified around 4 or 5 stakeholder groups and suggested these people liaise directly with the project manager.

The results? Much quicker decision making by the project board which is based on input from the key stakeholders. Plus, continuity. Project managers reported a huge issue with project boards never having the same 15 people - "I cannot go to this meeting so I want you to go" was quoted several times.

So, keep it simple...please!

Terminal 5 shambles brings holiday chaos

Not a great headline from The Times newspaper here in the UK this morning. Who would be a BA or a BAA executive?

For those that do not know after 19 years of planning and building (much of this was in getting planning permission to build the terminal) the 5th Terminal at Heathrow opened yesterday and by the end of the day:

10,00 passengers were affected by a series of cancellations
33 flights were cancelled
4 hours delay for luggage on incoming flights
188 departures planned for terminal 5 yesterday
31,000 passengers due to be handled yesterday

The debate will go on for a while to establish EXACTLY what went wrong however some issues have already surfaced:

* signage in the new terminal is not very clear
* staff handling baggage etc were delayed by security checks
* security workers could not park
* baggage handlers were unable to log on to computers

So, what are the lessons for all of us involved in the running of projects (as big as Terminal 5)?

a)trial, trial and trial again. This week there was TV programme showing how they built and tested the new airport. Obviously not enough

b) how about one persons suggestion in the papers "have a a gradual move across to terminal 5 rather than a big bang… "

c)training: when things go wrong, you need well trained staff to cope! The papers are full of quotes from unhappy passengers however one quote from a staff member (if its true) does little to inspire confidence “this is what happens with a new terminal”. Train, train and train again. If you do this the chances of the problems and issues happening are reduced and if something does go wrong well trained staff do try and inspire confidence in its customers...somehow

d)put in robust quality checking processes. These quality checks would have identified potential problems and potential risks

e)PR - what a disaster for BAA, BA and for the UK. Many of the post from on-line newspapers were incredibly scathing about this countries poor project management record.

As I type this note, there are calls for heads to roll (sackings)- I wonder....

No doubt there will be further information coming from the sad experience of those who tried to travel in yesterday.

Help needed for research project - read on...

I was contacted recently by an undergraduate student who is doing some research into project management. After Stuart interviewed me, I had an email asking me for help in widening the numbers involved in the research.

Let Stuart take up the story:

My name is Stuart Murray and I am a 4th year undergraduate student doing research into Project Management as part of my degree dissertation. I have been conducting interviews with some top project professionals and have developed a survey to use in a second phase of research to get a wider set of results. The survey is online, has 5 short questions and will explore a new area of thinking concerning project managers and their development. It will take no more than 5 mins to do but your contribution will be of great value to this piece of work and to future research and all those who take part will be able to receive a copy of the results. Thank you very much for your help and your time. The link to the questionnaire is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=DjfjOBJNcbvtgkqhatzpdA_3d_3d

I hope that many of you reading this will help take part in this valuable piece of research

It's all in the head!!

FREE TEMPLATES - GO TO THE END TO FIND OUT HOW TO DOWNLOAD THEM!!

Why do we use so many templates in project management? Great question isn't it? You can name many project templates:

business case
risk log
lessons learned log
communications chart
PID
etc, etc

But why oh why do I say it’s all in the head? On two recent project management programmes participants have said that this is where they keep information! They try and manage large complex projects without writing anything down, A few people said they had very little in terms of project files - on line or in hard copy. This is a risk; a huge risk for project managers and their sponsors.

So let’s come back to the question; why do we use so many templates in project management? There are many reasons; the list is extensive. Let’s take a look at some of these:

* its a record of what you are doing. Ever needed to go back and check that what you are doing is what you should be doing? It’s a reference point for you

* a key group of people in projects are your stakeholders (those with an interest or who will be affected by the project). These can be the trade unions, maybe a key customer group or maybe an internal department such as marketing and accounting. They will certainly be interested in your project and the forms will help in the overall communications process

* the forms can be used to measure project progress. For example; the business case should be checked regularly by the project sponsor (the person who has ultimate responsibility for its successful delivery) to ensure it is still meeting its original rational. The risk log should be checked regularly by the project manager and the team, the same with the communications chart

* version control; my admin manager tells me that I need to tighten up on my version control; and you know what, she is correct. Each time you complete or amend a template you need to check that the version of the form is updated. Too many times people are working on old versions of templates. Version control can help in the smooth management of the project.

* milestones; many projects are managed by milestones. Use of project management templates can help the team know where they should be; where they are.

* monitoring: a key part of the project management life cycle is to ensure that the project is delivering what it set out to deliver. The forms can help enormously to pin point where the project is; whether it is on schedule or off it. Use of the highlight report can actually save time as you only report on key highlights of the project since you last reported and the report is only 1 or 2 pages long

* approval: one of the issues project managers face is not knowing who is responsible for signing off (agreeing) some of the documents. This person (or maybe it is a project board) receives the document and approves it or otherwise. Use of these documents helps cement the approvals process

*communications; I mentioned earlier on that use of these forms can aid communications in projects. Use of the communications template or the PID can really smooth the path for your project

There are of more reasons however I hope that this has convinced you of the need for using written documents.

If you want to get some FREE project management templates then click here or go to www.projectagency.co.uk/word/templates.pdf

Don't forget; put what's in your head onto paper and it can contribute greatly to project success

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn*

How many times do we read that we must learn from our mistakes (I would also add from our successes!)? We encourage all of our clients to:

1. use lessons learned reports or learning logs throughout projects
2. hold end of project reviews where learning is at the centre of the meeting

However, our experience shows that few projects use both of the above with some using learning logs - though very loosely.

I came across an interesting article in Computer Weekly headed “Litany of errors plagued Housing Corp IT project” The article goes into some detail about the errors and gives information published from firm of Consultants - click here for details of the report. The key findings are shown below:

*The Corporation lacked the the expertise to manage the project. As a result managers relied too heavily on technical advice from a single freelance IT consultant, despite warnings that this posed a risk

*The business case was "inconsistent" and "incomplete". It contained misleading assumptions and contradictory data

*Managers did not challenge the technical solution, despite reservations from independent advisors

*Executives gave repeated but mistaken assurances that the project was under control, despite difficult pilots

*Business users had little input into the design of the system, which suffered from technical problems and did not meet their needs

Now, an important point. I do not write this to embarrass The Housing Corporation: far from it! I write this to see what we can all learn from it

How does your organisation go about identifying and sharing learning - both positive and not so positive? How many times must the same mistakes be made before senior managers realise there is a pattern going on? Do you hold meetings where real learning is identified and acted upon? If no, you should and you need to action this now!

Do you need really bad PR/publicity before your organisation takes measures to deal with learning and project management generally

BEWARE: You don’t want to be the next headline.

* words to a song http://www.volcano.net/~jackmearl/songs/wsongs/where_have_all_the_flowers_gone.html by Pete Seeger

Let the train take the strain

I set off in really good heart - off to Project Challenge at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

I was early for my train so I planned to have a cup of tea and then wonder onto the train. But I had not accounted for the really strong winds that cancelled my train. The next one was 30 minutes later but a group of us were told that "we do not know how long the train will take; we are estimating two and a half hours....." There were may people like me who simply abandoned their trips and returned home or to work.

I was left wondering the cost of this to the economy; the loss of learning for me and for others within Project Agency as I could not pass on any learning from the conference.

Today I woke up to a report from the National Audit Office (go to this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7295682.stm for more details). The basic facts are:

*14 million minutes were lost by late running trains
* it cost the public £1bn in lost time

Alarming stuff!!

I travel by train to keep my car off the road and MOSTLY it is convenient but when it goes wrong we simply add it to the above figures. Had I gone by car I may well have been delayed by the road works (south part of the M1 near Luton) - so what do I do next time??

I wrote to the organiser apologising and suggesting next year they add a session on risk management!