Category Archives: Leadership

Jun 15 2014
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Leadership

The Powerhouse PM – Applying Domain Knowledge

My experience tells me that, all things being equal, a solid Project Manager (PM) can effectively lead a team to build a bicycle or a rocketship. While these “projects” vary significantly in risk and complexity, a key factor is gathering together the subject matter experts into a cohesive team to formulate the plan and execute.

That said, a PM provides increasingly more value with knowledge of, and experience in, the domains s/he is working. Domains may include:

  • A specific industry
  • Process / functional area
  • Technology (hardware, software, infrastructure and/or applications)
  • Business administration

The PM has an advantage when s/he has:

  • Significant depth in a particular niche / domain; or,
  • Reasonable depth across multiple domains; and, most importantly,
  • The wherewithal to leverage their domain knowledge on projects they manage.

If a PM lacks domain knowledge (breadth or depth) or doesn’t apply this experience on their projects they can be “perceived” as a detached participant. They may be seen as present in form but not in spirit. Viewed as a meeting scheduler, planner, status checker and note taker. A project administrator. While this may be all that is needed in certain cases (small/short/narrowly focused projects) those aspiring to be a “Powerhouse PM” must bring so much more to the table.

So, in addition to acquiring the foundational / prerequisite skills necessary for Project Management (outlined in a prior post), aspiring Powerhouse PM’s are encouraged to develop SIGNIFICANT domain knowledge. You pick the domain or domains, and the depth/breadth. This can be accomplished a number of ways:

  • First, and foremost, by performing in a job relative to or within the domain
  • Attending training including night/weekend courses at a local college
  • Reading trade rags and books on the topic
  • Joining trade associations; taking on a volunteer / leadership position

Many of these will qualify as training that an employer will pay for. The alternative, for any that don’t qualify: pay for it “out of pocket.”

Whether the PM has domain knowledge pertinent to the project being managed or not – THEY MUST EXERT THEMSELVES. They must question everything. Asking “why?” a lot! They must make sure they “get it” and that right (business and project) decisions are being made. We must ask ourselves: “If this business problem was mine personally (vs. my company’s or client’s) do I understand the direction / decision? Does it sit well with me? Or, am I being complacent and letting it go for the sake of expediency or for fear of asking a dumb question?”

There are NO DUMB QUESTIONS! I’ve found that, more often than not, the question I’ve asked was in the mind of one or more of my teammates (or should have been).

If the PM didn’t previously have the domain knowledge (or the desired depth) this method will certainly help to acquire it. This approach will also add SIGNIFICANT value to the team as others learn in the process (expanding their horizons) while making it even more likely that the project will succeed.

In closing, the advice given here is for those aspiring to be a Powerhouse Project Manager: An indispensable, sought-after resource that a client or company will be hard-pressed to ever “let go.”

More to come. I’m just getting started 🙂

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Jun 09 2014
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Leadership

The Powerhouse PM – Manages the Seconds!

If you’ve had ANY experience managing projects you’ll soon realize that most everyone on a project team was already busy with their “day job” prior to the project kicking off.

As such, leading this new project requires that we vie for time on team members’ already tight calendars. One of the biggest challenges, in doing so for the duration of the project, is ensuring we make best use of everyone’s time. The reality: as soon as a team member feels that any of their time is being wasted we’ll lose them (as we should).

To support this objective, I constantly look for ways to shave time off everything I do. Seconds matter, as they add up to minutes, which add up to hours and so on.

One of the biggest time wasters relates to poor meeting management. Following are just a few things that I’ve found helpful to make best use of everyones’ time:
  • Consider the principle “if we (the PM) are on time, WE ARE LATE.” The PM needs to arrive to the meeting early (prior to the start time). We need to ensure the room is setup and ready-to-go.  The PM is the greeter, welcoming everyone to the meeting and taking note of attendance to support “roll call.” And, finally, when the meeting is scheduled to start we are “already there.”
  • What about those squatters? Our “start time” can be impacted by someone else using the room that we’ve scheduled for our meeting. To address this, we can visibly hover outside the room a few minutes in advance of the meeting start time. And, if they aren’t wrapped up by the time our meeting is scheduled to start we must promptly and politely indicate to the group currently occupying the room that we are scheduled to start an important meeting “on the hour” and just stand there, with a smile, waiting for them to leave.
  • Don’t let technology become an obstacle / time waster: Meeting attendees are often geographically dispersed, requiring the use of conference services and technology such as Webex (my favorite). Regardless of the technology, it is important for the PM to spend time setting him/herself up in advance, testing and getting comfortable with the tool and it’s capabilities. If it isn’t clear that team members and meeting participants have used the tool previously you’ll want to request that they get setup well in advance of the meeting (1-2 days prior) and encourage them to contact support with any issues.
  • Make technology work for you: One thing I like about Webex (again, to shave seconds, even minutes off of each meeting) is the “Call You” feature. You can setup, in advance, common numbers that you use to join conference calls (your cell, conference rooms, etc.). Then, when it is time to start or join a meeting you can launch the Webex from your computer and select the number you’d like it to dial to connect you via phone. And, upon “arriving” to the (virtual) meeting you can view the list of names of those who have dialed in which streamlines the “roll call” process. I encourage all team members to set up and use this feature when joining remotely.
  • Allow no “awkward” silence (keep things moving): As the facilitator / driver for many of the project meetings it is important to maintain a balance between being respectful and courteous in conversations while keeping things moving forward – rapidly. That is, while it is important to allow time for people to interject before proceeding to the next topic we must not leave too much time…It is just as important to maintain momentum (and keep everyone awake) by confirming (asking if) everyone is ok on a topic, then moving on, after leaving only a brief (no more than 2-3 seconds) window of opportunity for people to jump in. If you should occasionally move on too quickly people can certainly pull you back. Keeping up the pace will ensure people remain engaged and respond promptly. Team members will soon realize that if they don’t pay attention, they shall be left behind (resulting in an embarrassing situation – for them 🙂 )!
  • Assume a default meeting duration of 30 minutes. If/when it is anticipated that an hour (or 4) is required to cover a particular topic then book that time accordingly. Too often, however, meeting schedulers assume a default meeting duration of an hour (when much less time would do). I’ve found there are “some” on the team who are happy to “hang out / hide out” in the meeting room to burn off the hour (talk baseball, etc.) when they have more important things to do (which may or may not be related to the project). As such, if it is a routine check-in, focused question or topic, book only 30 minutes and drive participants to complete the conversation in that timeframe. Doing so gives people more time back at their desk to get work done!
  • This is NOT social time: The most important principle of all…Don’t schedule a meeting unless it is absolutely necessary. Could the topic be addressed in a quick 1-on-1 conversation or email? If so, reach out accordingly.

I’ve found that managing the details results in noticeable savings in time and energy which (most) team members REALLY appreciate!

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Jun 02 2014
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Leadership

The Powerhouse PM – Throws Stuff OFF the Wagon!

During the early stages of a project it is expected that the Project Manager (PM) will accumulate numerous tasks and to do’s which must be completed in order to cross the finish line. Effectively managing these into (or, more importantly, out of) the project plan is crucial. This includes determining:

  • Which items are in scope (necessary to ensure success) vs. out-of-scope (unnecessary, and/or could be addressed after “go-live”)
  • Timing and interdependencies
  • Ownership

Building on a prior post, this is the phase when the PM is “drinking from a firehose” taking everything in / making sure no details are lost. All well and good!

That said, over time (relative to the project scope/magnitude and complexity) the project “wagon” will be loaded up with the agreed upon tasks and activities that the team will address as part of the plan.

It is at this point when the Powerhouse PM must be absolutely tenacious to ensure that each and every meeting (and day) more things come “off the wagon” than are added “to the wagon.” This is not to say that new information won’t materialize that must be factored into the plan. However, too often, silly little delays can be introduced by not QUICKLY nipping things in the bud.

I was recently in a project team meeting in which we were discussing the final phase of data conversion round 1 (of 3). Being that it was round 1, we weren’t looking for perfection. We were “testing”, looking to ensure we had “the basics” covered. That is, we could load each data element to the system and perform some rudimentary reconciliation to ensure things looked good. From here we have 2 more opportunities to “perfect” things.

During the team meeting 2 questions came up related to inconsistencies in and/or incompleteness of the data. The conversation started down the path of how this could be rectified (going back to pull more data and creating scripts to update loaded data) and what the impact would be to the (already tight) schedule.

It is at this point when the Powerhouse PM exclaims: STOP! And, reinforces the fact that the data is “good enough” for this round. Perfection is NOT what we are looking for. If we are 80% or better then we are in good shape. Allow NO DELAYS!

If we had been “way” ahead of schedule and team members had plenty of time on their hands we may have been “tempted” to consider addressing the above. Even then I would suggest the same course of action would be appropriate, because I have found that “work expands to fill the available time.” As such, whenever there is wiggle room in a schedule, don’t be tempted to “burn it” on anything that isn’t absolutely critical to project success, or for that phase of the project. That time WILL become necessary later on in the project when something new (the inevitable curve ball) shows up that must be addressed.

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