Planning Session

I recently initiated an interesting discussion about product-based planning on LinkedIn. It started soon after I promoted a guest post for the Tom’s Planner blog on project planning. Inevitably it turned into a debate about the merits of product-based planning over other techniques.

However, what I found engaging and of concern was the idea of planning from the bottom-up.

The product breakdown structure (PBS) or work breakdown structure (WBS) have much in common. Both are planning tools that help the project manager determine scope. Both are hierarchical tree diagrams. Both help estimate the effort, time and resources needed to deliver the project.

The correct way – the most complete and accurate way – is to prepare a PBS or WBS from the top. The PBS is derived by decomposing – breaking down – the project into smaller components until the level of detail is enough to accurately describe what is needed to deliver the project.

Why is this the correct way? Simply because it is logical and results is a full description of what the project needs to produce. Things are less likely to get missed. In my earlier post, I used a speaker event to illustrate product-based planning. The rational process of decomposing the project into more detail established that promotion was better defined by an advertising campaign and marketing products.

In contrast, the bottom-up approach turns logic on its head. The team attempts to think of all the products (or work) the project must deliver. It’s an unsatisfactory attempt at brainstorming which results in most of the suggestions representing products. The problem with this approach is

• it assumes the requirements are well-defined and understood
• all team members have enough knowledge to name every product and integrate them across all levels

A bottom-up approach is likely to miss products. No, I’ll rephrase this. A bottom-up approach will result in missed products. From my earlier example, would the distinction between marketing and advertising have been understood? Would something be missed? Probably.

It is a lazy way to plan. It is an unreliable way to plan.

What’s more, it often is the advocate of the bottom-up approach who elects to prepare the schedule plan directly from such brainstorming activity. And when they’ve prepared their nice shiny Gantt chart they say they’re done planning. Poppycock!

There are no shortcuts to effective project planning. Invest your time wisely. Otherwise you’ll get caught out sooner or later.

Thanks for reading.

Image: Kaptain Kobold.

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Bridging the Business-IT Gap

How many Information Technology (IT) projects are all about technology? Let’s see…

A project implements the latest version of Microsoft Exchange. Is it an IT project? If it’s about introducing new productivity tools to the business it’s not. It is about business change.

A project acquires a new software package for managing insurance claims. Is it an IT project? If it’s about changing business practice it’s not. It is about business change.

Two organisations decide to share their IT infrastructures. Is it an IT project? If it’s about transforming the way business is done it’s not. It is about business change.

Much business change makes use of the enabling power of information technology. However, few change projects are only about IT. If we are to bridge the business-IT gap IT must be seen as an enabler not instigator of change. Such projects should be business-led. The IT organisation must be committed to business objectives and work to close the culture gap between business and IT.

Thanks for reading.

Image: Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives.

The business-IT gap

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Good Citizens Don't Think

Last month I questioned the need to plan in detail when implementing large-scale change. Indeed I argued that detailed planning doesn’t guarantee success.

Whilst cohesive teams and robust processes may be necessary for managing day-to-day issues they do not encourage freedom of thought or the learning that is needed in times of sustained change. I return to the machine metaphor: during periods of stability and certainty there tends to be a high level of agreement. The organisation is less creative and acts much like a machine.

In contrast, when we are far from certainty and agreement, innovation and creativity is needed. The organisation has to be open to new ideas and learning. The organisations needs flexibility. Strategy emerges.

And this is where some organisations struggle. They fail to adapt and change because culture, politics and routines dictate that strategy is prescribed. That change is the result of planned moves. In reality, this does not happen! Strategies for change are rarely logical or rational. Indeed strategic decisions are often the result of external factors and political bargaining between those who wield power and influence.

The old pattern is inadequate. The organisation will fail to accomplish its purpose because it cannot adapt quickly or learn from experiences.

What’s more, the organisation is often at odds with its workforce. Whilst people understand the problems the organisation invariably continues on the wrong path because it is inflexible and influenced by typical leadership intuition.

Unsurprisingly this causes tension.

So we have a choice: either smooth over the differences of opinion and tell people what to do or be open to new ideas and seek an alternative way forward. Good leaders do the latter. They are open to experimentation; testing new ideas and reflecting on what happens. They learn. The organisation learns. The organisation adapts.

Organisations need leaders that are open to new possibilities through experimentation. Leaders who encourage creativity and innovation. Leaders who see conflict as a positive experience; an opportunity to work through the tension. They lead by serving.

Thanks for reading.

Image: PropagandaTimes.

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Multi-tasking Vs. Focus

The women in my life – my wife and daughter – sometimes go to great lengths to convince me that they are better multitaskers than men. I usually agree. That is, when they have my attention. The thing is this, when I’m concentrating on something I usually give it 100% of my attention and block interruptions. That’s when I’m most effective… when I’m focused… when I’m in the present.

In contrast, some people seem to rush from one activity to another. They never take a break, they eat on the move, and use the phone during meetings. They think they accomplish more because they attempt two or more unrelated activities at the same time.

But are they effective?

Of course they’re not! How can they be? Their attention is split between tasks. I see this almost every day in meetings. People pretend to be interested in the agenda but their concentration is elsewhere because they’re using a smart phone to check email. Their focus is on the discussion or the email. Not both. Not effectively.

When we attempt to do more than one thing at a time our focus is diminished. Kevin Stirtz explains

Think of focus as a ray of sunshine through a magnifying glass. On a sunny summer day it’s easy to burn a piece of paper with a magnifying glass if you hold it close enough. By focusing the light on a tiny area, you intensify the amount of energy applied to the paper. This increases the heat and can cause the paper to smoulder if you hold it there long enough.

If you pull the magnifying glass away, the focal point spreads out. It becomes less intense. It never produces enough heat to burn the paper because the light is spread too thin.

When we focus on one task instead of many, our energy is just like the sunlight passing through the magnifying glass. It intensifies and has a greater effect on whatever we’re doing.

So why do do people multi-task? Perhaps people have too much to do and too little time. Or they’re not well organised. Maybe their interests lie outside the organisation: a new relationship; domestic challenges; a new business venture.

If you find yourself struggling to give activities your full attention or you’re overwhelmed by your work you need to review your workload. Set priorities, plan objectives and deal with them one at a time. If you’re being stretched too thin then it’s likely that your lack of focus is the result of an unsustainable pace. In this case renegotiate your workload.

The belief that multitasking makes you more efficient is a myth. Staying focused on the person or activity before you will always yield better results.

Thanks for watching.

Image: jdlasica.

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Planning is essential regardless of the size or type of project.

In my last guest post for the Tom’s Planner Blog – Why Plan | Project Planning, part 1– I explained how project planning helps us to predict and prepare for difficulties.

Plan With Post-It Notes

To recap, project planning is an essential management activity that provides everyone involved in a project with information – understanding – on:

• What is required
• How it is done
• Who does what
• When things will happen

Read the complete article and let me know what you think: Product Based Planning | Project Planning, part 2.

The product-based planning technique – defined in the PRINCE2 handbook – makes it easier to estimate effort, resources and time needed to deliver the project. Moreover, product based planning puts quality at the heart of planning because each completely and unambiguously defined. Planning is essential regardless of the size or type of project.

Thanks for reading.

If you would like me to write a guest blog you please send a DM to @TristanWember or visit my contact page. Thanks.

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Complex Behaviour Governed By Simple Rules

In my post Dolphins, Not Whales I talked about the role projects have when implementing beneficial change. I argue that sustainable change is achievable when people are engaged and urgency is increased. Dolphins, Not Whales is about encouraging quick wins – breaking large scale change into smaller manageable chunks.

I’m engaged in a large scale endeavour that promises to deliver significant benefit to a number of organisations. It’s true that a lot of effort has gone into preparing the vision, strategic plans, business case, specifications, design documents and so on. This got me thinking… Should we take a good-enough approach or try to plan every little detail?

Organisations are often depicted as machines. For example, the surgical team within a hospital or firefighters responding to an emergency follow the machine metaphor. In these circumstances it’s right that they work like a well oiled machine. Failure of one part can be catastrophic!

However, the machine metaphor doesn’t fit the rapidly changing organisation where creativity and innovation are the norm. Business change is complex. Strategy emerges. Strategy evolves.

What the organisation needs is flexibility. The ability to adapt and flex as context changes.

Back to my question… Should detailed strategic plans be replaced by documents that simply describe the general direction an organisation is heading? And should this approach also apply to business planning?

I guess I’m thinking (or saying) that I’m no longer confident that detailed planning guarantees an outcome. That the modern organisation is significantly different to the traditional machine-metaphor organisation. It is a complex system.

Do organisations spend too much time analysing and over-specifying things when they design and plan business change? Maybe complexity is bested by simplicity? As I’ve said before, successful change requires momentum (or a sense of urgency) and the creation of short-term wins. Keeping things simple help us achieve this. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.

Image: antmoose.

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His comments had me thinking. Why do many project management practitioners and organisations place much importance on the PID? Why is the PID a prominent feature of project initiation?

The project initiation document has become an end in itself not a means to an end.

The PID Is a Means to An End

The project initiation document or PID is a term and product of PRINCE2. Yet the current edition of the PRINCE2 handbook does not describe the PID as a single document. What’s more, the second edition only mentions it in passing with 3 entries showing in the index. The first edition includes eleven references.

Nonetheless, each makes it very clear that assembling the PID is about bringing together documentation produced during project initiation.

Has the project initiation document become an end in itself not a means to an end? Should project managers and project sponsors stop thinking about the contents of the PID and focus on initiating the project?

How to Initiate a Project

The beginning of a project is an important time. It is the time to make a preliminary assessment of opportunity, the benefits, costs, and the likely impact on business. It’s a time when questions are asked and possible solutions identified. A time to challenge why the project is needed.

Project initiation is also about scope and planning. What must the project deliver? When must it deliver? And who needs to be involved?

Initiation is about finding answers to these questions. Questions that cannot be answered by one person. Indeed, it is the project manager’s job to find the answers. To ask the right questions… to ask the right people the right questions!

Only when the answers are known is project initiation complete. Only then can the project confidently move to the next stage.

Project documentation must hold the answers to these question. The initial business case and project plan do. They explain why the project is needed and how things will happen. They record risk, define scope, and document the project organisation.

If you want to assemble these document into a project initiation document that’s just fine. However, make certain you’ve asked all the right questions first!

Thanks for reading.

Image: J+B=Us.

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Plan With Post-It Notes

In my last post – Why Plan | Project Planning, part 1 (guest post for Tom’s Planner) – I explained how project planning helps us to predict and prepare for difficulties. To recap, project planning is an essential management activity that provides everyone involved in a project with information – understanding – on

• What is required
• How it is done
• Who does what
• When things will happen

When starting a project we tend to think about it in terms of a journey: going on a quest or walking in the fog. Whilst this analogy is useful in helping us to understand the type of project we’re starting we should not dwell on the journey.

Planning is about the destination – what the project will deliver. Therefore, we have much to gain if we focus on the products that must be produced.

A Product Based Approach to Planning

Planning is essential regardless of the size or type of project.

Let’s turn planning on its head for a moment! As I’ve already said, the project plan comprises of cost and resources plans plus a schedule plan or Gantt chart. However, this does not mean we start assigning tasks or activities to people by diving up the available time. No! Effective planning begins with an understanding of project scope.

Accordingly, we first describe the quality of the products the project must deliver. Products are simply milestones or deliverables that contribute to the success of the project.

In contrast, activities consume time and effort that should contribute to the delivery of specific products and ultimately business benefits.

Examples products could include

• A business case
• An invitation to tender
• A test strategy
• The contract
• Trained users
• A test plan

The product-based planning technique – defined in the PRINCE2 handbook – makes it easier to estimate effort, resources and time needed to deliver the project. Moreover, product based planning puts quality at the heart of planning because each completely and unambiguously defined. Planning is essential regardless of the size or type of project.

The rest of this article demonstrates how product based planning is performed by starting with the product breakdown structure. The product flow diagram and product description shall be covered in the last part of this series.

The Product Breakdown Structure

The product breakdown structure defines and documents project scope: everything the project will produce to meet its objective. The product breakdown structure – or PBS – is a simple hierarchical tree diagram.

Whilst there are many ways to prepare a PBS I shall describe the approach that works for me: a team activity which brings together the project team in a facilitated workshop. This allow the project manager to personally contribute to the planning process.

Moreover, make it interactive and get everyone involved! If you read my blog (Martin Webster, Esq.) you’ll learn that I encourage participation and often make use of Post-It notes and flip charts. But remember this; it is the responsibility of the project manager (or facilitator) to keep people focused on project outputs not inputs.

Let’s start with a simple example: organising and delivering a successful event. The first product describes what the project intends to achieve in its entirety. This is the starting point of the PBS. Make this absolutely clear. Remember it’s all about the destination!

So what is needed to deliver a successful event? Ask your audience. Encourage participation and let ideas to flow freely. Allow people write anything that comes to mind on a Post-It note. This will include physical functional, and conceptual products. But limit this activity to 5 or 10 minutes depending on the size and complexity of the project.

You’ll end up with lots of ideas. Many will cover the same topic. Others will be unique. My guess is that some of the following key components will be identified

• Administration
• Promotion
• Financial
• Logistics
• Registration
• Speakers
• Sponsors

Next, group the Post-It notes into similar product categories. Don’t worry if they aren’t clearly defined products or outputs at this stage. Now agree the component parts of the project and place these on a separate flip chart. In the example we have the beginnings of a product breakdown structure

Initial PBS

Continue breaking down the products into more detail. Once again, limit the amount of time to 5 or 10 minutes for each iteration.

Also, as you decompose the project into its constituent parts you will begin to notice that some products are redundant because they are better described by those that come later. For instance, promotion is better defined as an advertising campaign and marketing products.

Product Breakdown Structure

Likewise, you will eventually find it difficult to subdivide further. If that’s the case, stop where you are. The job is done.

What started as a single description of the project is now a more compete list of the parts that describe the project. Document this information and use it to create the product flow diagram and project descriptions.

Thanks for reading.

Images: vancouverfilmschool, Martin Webster.

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Dolphins...

However, many organisations have problems with the way they tackle change. These problems are usually related to people, processes, systems, technology or structure. Change is complex. And the pace and scale of change today can overwhelm organisations.

Projects are key to creating beneficial change. They are the vehicles for creating, managing and implementing change. Those organisations that recognise project management is a core capability (or competence) are most likely to find success.

Successful business change projects have the following characteristics:

• A single project team. A team that is business-led. One that comprises of all the required resources from the business, human resources, information technology etc. Ideally, team members should be collocated and allocated to the project full-time. This encourages communication and helps to build strong relationships.
• Business change is about delivering benefits. The project team is responsible for  delivering clearly specified benefits to the business and not for creating systems, structures nor introducing technologies. There should be no other success criteria! Projects should always be driven by benefits that support strategy.
• Executive management describes the business need – why the project is necessary – from the outset. Their mandate will also specify the time-scale within which the project must deliver the benefits. What’s more, successful organisations set a challenging schedule and stick to it – even when expert opinion  suggests this is unachievable. Change should be delivered with urgency and in no more than nine months.
• Detailed analysis has the effect of putting the brakes on change. Therefore, the idea of time-boxing is used to push the project team to make decisions about what is really needed. Successful businesses break tradition and create a sense of urgency when delivering change.
• Large scale change needs momentum plus a sense of achievement and bags of optimism. Time-boxing encourages quick wins ensuring results are achieved quickly. Instead of detailed analyses and the preparation of a hefty business case or full requirements specifications the project team is moved to change and learns what is really required through a series of iterations – breaking large scale change into smaller chunks and success stories.
• Thus, large scale projects are broken down into a series of shorter steps or phases. Each step will deliver benefits and move the organisation to sustaining change. It is urgency that sustains change and this is only possible when results are achieved rapidly. Not only does this give recognition and encouragement to those working hard to accomplish change it also builds faith in the change effort.

...Not Whales

David Feeny – a prominent British academic and authority on business transformation – first introduced me to the concept of dolphins not whales. It effectively shows people how sustaining change should be implemented. That is, creating a climate for change by increasing urgency and engaging and enabling the organisation through short-term wins.

Dolphins, Not Whales

Dolphins, not whales is a great way to grasp what is at the heart of change. When leading change use this to win hearts and minds.

Thanks for reading.

Images: CastleIslandPhoto, NOAA’s National Ocean Service and Martin Webster.

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Teamwork

A new year signifies a new start for many. So why not take the opportunity to change or improve your leadership style?

Leadership is less about you and more about the needs of the people you are leading. Adapt your style to suit the needs of the team and the situations it faces – also see 5 Models for Leading Change | Leading Project Teams.

If you want to get the best from your team in 2012 I’ve got seven tips to get you started. As you review this list think about your behaviour and how this affects the people around you.

A leader is defined by his followers.

Happy New Year!

1. Build the Right Environment for Your Team

• Let your values guide you; be an authentic leader
• Focus on your people and on the team’s purpose; don’t let distractions unsettle the team
• Make sure everyone knows what is important and what must be achieved; plan and set meaningful objectives

2. Choose Your Team Wisely

• Pay very close attention to recruitment; appoint the best people available
• Match peoples skills to every task; play to peoples strengths
• Encourage knowledge sharing and teamwork; build this into your team meetings
• Put your team plan into action and monitor progress
• Get the best from each team member; set expectations and manage performance

3. Listen to Your Team

• Pay attention to how you are perceived;
• Walk in your team’s shoes; understand their experiences and difficulties
• Open your eyes to participation; delegate and empower more often

4. Aim High

• Put the customer at the heart of what you do
• Encourage your team to embrace new ways of working
• Help everyone through periods of change

5. Share Successes…

• Show the team how and why they make a difference
• Recognise and celebrate achievements
• Do right by those who do right; it’s not always the easiest path

6. …and Deal With Poor Performance

• Confront performance problems early
• Coach the team, especially those in the middle
• And don’t forget to credit your top performers

7. Perform

• Set a good example: walk the talk
• Establish guidelines and accountability
• And remember, everyone counts!

Thanks for reading.

Image: rocketlass.

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