The Key to Project Management success is people

Am I stating the obvious?, well probably yes, but with a lot of emphasis these days on governance there is a danger that we employ Project Managers purely based on their technical ability and who can build and run a plan but if things take a turn for the worse then without people skills they may not be able to fully recover the project.

So how do we get success with people? And let me say that I am talking about 3 to 4 groups where people skills are needed for Project Managers.

• Business – your stakeholders
• Suppliers – your providers
• Management – your reporting lines
• Team- your delivery team

The key to all of them is communication, honesty and an open approach but applied slightly differently because each group will need different levels of information at different times. This is where stakeholder analysis comes in. Identify all the people with some involvement in the project whether that is using the end product or part of its creation and for each person identify their impact and attitude to the project and how you are going to communicate with them.

Some people skills can’t be taught, although some may disagree, but a lot comes down to personality which you are born with or develop in your early days. The basics however can be applied and even if you are not a natural leader or don’t have a magnetic personality you can still employ the basic levels of people skills and achieve success.

Here are my 5 basics:-

• Involve People – Seek their views, playback to them before finalising; ensure all have a view (the strong and the weak)
• Empower People – Give responsibility, Trust them to deliver
• Inform People – Tell them what is happening and share your views, the issues and problems you and the project are facing. Be straight with them and don’t let problems fester
• Join People – Create a team. Get them together and facilitate discussion. Encourage team working
• Reward People – Praise people, recognise good work/ achievements but don’t forget they are part of a team

Project governance is very important but if you can build project governance around people then success will surely come.

Keep Process Improvement simple

The drive for efficiency has never been more important in todays challenging business environment. That drive will often lead to a review of the business processes to identify and take out inefficiencies. These reviews have, in many cases, grown into major projects which can become expensive and difficult to handle successfully, often ending up failing or achieving a compromise which doesn’t meet the original goal. The Business Process Reengineering days of the early 1990’s tarnished its reputation because in those days, although there was some success, it was not fully understood and therefore often poorly planned and executed.

Despite those difficulties redesigning business processes is more popular today than ever but the risks remain, particularly if the project gets too large to handle and therefore difficult to control.

I would like to suggest a simpler way to achieve efficiencies by taking smaller bites in a more agile way. This doesn’t mean that there are not situations when a larger reengineering project is still required but if there isn’t an urgent need for a major restructure and the company’s skills in this area are limited then tackling a series of small projects is much more likely to be successful and builds up knowledge and confidence before moving into larger projects when and if that becomes necessary.

The approach
This ‘small bite’ approach is based around a number of key requirements/deliverables

• A small team to be created headed by a champion who is a respected senior director/manager of the company
• The team is trained in the technique being used and effectively become facilitators. The team are available to all areas of the business subject to approval of the business drivers
• Any project that is selected must have a least 2 defined and relevant reasons (business drivers for change). These will also determine the priority if more than one project is competing for the teams attention
• The head of the business area involved in the review must be fully supportive and willing to implement the findings
• A facilitated review session lasting 1 or 2 days maximum with a small number of people who have a spread of knowledge of the process being reviewed
• An outcome from the review sessions that will identify improvements that can be implemented quickly plus an ideas bank that will form the basis for on-going improvements
• An action plan to implement the improvements

The method is that the senior champion promotes the process with his colleagues. The setting up of a project is by request from a business area which must justify the need by having at least 2 business drivers for change, such as Client requirements not being met, declining orders, lack of consistency in product delivery, profitability targets not being met etc., the project must be put forward by a senior manager who is willing to commit up to 2 days time and resource and is committed to implementing the recommendations.

The technique is to look at one area and break it down into smaller pieces identifying the inputs and outputs, the controls and constraints and the mechanisms to deliver the product or service. This technique is using the ICOM (Input-Control-Output-Mechanism) or IDEF process modelling method which is mainly a top down approach, as its basis and a good way to decompose processes under review. The review is done in a 1 to 2 day workshop which is attended by a small group of people from the business who have knowledge of the various processes involved. During this workshop and with the drivers for change in mind improvements are identified and an action plan is created that will deliver the results identified plus other ideas generated in the session are collected to form the basis for on-going improvements. The idea is to find quick wins that can be achieved in a short space of time followed by continuous improvement using the ideas bank.

This approach requires a relatively small amount of time, has a defined business reason to support it and is owned by the area that requested it. Once one project is successful word of mouth and promotion from the senior champion will generate more requests for projects and the business will see on-going efficiencies being delivered against key business drivers.

The key to its success is a commitment to finding a solution to the business drivers identified, an open and challenging attitude and the need to embrace change and see it through to the end.

Nothing new there then!

"This post is on behalf of the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP"

Where next for Social Media in Business?

The other day I was feeling fatigued with the amount of data I was filtering and was thinking there must be more to life? Was it just my age or was I experiencing social media fatigue. I have read recently that people have been leaving some well-known social media sites and then there has been the negative headlines regarding anti-social activities fuelled by social media, so obviously I am not alone.

So I started to think whether people will get fed up with maintaining the levels of contact currently being experienced and conversely if they don’t and networks continue to expand as new content is added, will congestion become a problem?

Perhaps more importantly, where next for business with social networking? Do businesses have similar problems in that Marketing, PR and Sales have been at the forefront creating web sites and communicating messages but where is the rest of the business operation in social media? and what next for those areas active in social media and are they, like individuals, also getting fatigue?

As far as business is concerned are we at an impasse or is there a way forward? Certainly some benefit has been achieved but we are still slowed down with concerns over security and Value.

So where next for social media in business in what is becoming an ‘always-on’ world?

Even with some defectors there are still an awful lot of people using social media to the point that they expect that kind of collaboration when they are involved in business. This is particular true, although not exclusive, of the next generation to enter the workforce, so you could argue the demand for doing business using social media is there.
Mobile is where a lot of progress is and will continue to be made. Several social media tools are likely to be included as default on smart phones and using location will be a key element moving forward as well as ‘augmented reality’ but a lot of this is still only addressing the personal and retail business areas.

Businesses, as well as individuals, need better ways to filter and aggregate the flow of data together with ways of making sense of all the information so it is relevant to requirements and reduces fatigue. This is a key requirement if we are going to regain control of the information flow.

Other areas of the business will increasingly adopt social media as more products and innovations come along. We are already seeing integration with CRM products to listen to customers and competitors but new products should allow it to move down the value chain into supply (purchasing coalitions etc.), product development (ideas/opinions/feedback), service delivery (project collaboration etc.) It’s probably not a revolution but evolution as suppliers build these capabilities into their existing and new product lines.

Companies in particular are looking for easier ways to collaborate within their organisations, their markets and perhaps more importantly their customers. The goal is to create something that achieves this without the security risks that concern the company executives. At the moment that still seems to mean closed communities but some of these are leading the way in creating communities of business partners, manufacturers and allowing two way communication using various social media tools to enhance the experience.

There is some discussion that Google Plus will be a hub for business collaboration and certainly Google would be in a position as is Microsoft with its SharePoint product to deliver such capabilities. They have both been going down this path with previous attempts (Google Wave and Microsoft Groove) so hopefully they will get there soon.

In summary, social media needs to add value to the business process and such value that it can be recognised by the company executive. To do that we need to be able to filter the noise on the line, find ways to collaborate to wider audiences safely and securely and to integrate the new ways of working into the normal day to day products.

It maybe that the term and perception of Social Media is getting in the way and the new innovations should distance themselves from such a label. The social media revolution has now reached a point where it is evolving into the main stream; long live the revolution!

"This post is on behalf of the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP"

Communication without boundaries

The day of the virtual worker for some industries continues to move forward due to technology advances and social changes.

Whether you see it as good or bad, the fact is that people are now becoming used to communicating through a keyboard and screen with friends, family, colleagues and even complete strangers and don’t always seem to need the close presence of other human beings. This was always one of the issues with virtual/home working as there was a view you needed to have access to the ‘water cooler’ or ‘coffee machine’ to catch the gossip so that person didn’t feel isolated, but in some ways this has been replaced by social media tools such as Facebook, where people are more likely to open up than at the water cooler!

Access to the right talent is another factor in the movement towards the virtual workforce. Finding the right person in the right location is difficult and even though people have been prepared to relocate, that trend is changing with people seeking better work/life balance and wanting to work from their chosen location not yours.

Luckily technology has moved on a pace and with things like Unified Communications you can be in ‘the office’ but at home.
Technology now brings us collaboration tools such as Web conferencing where we can share and update documents; carry out polls to get opinions; have chat (IM) sessions either in isolation or running alongside a virtual meeting which allows all members to have a say even if they can’t get a voice due to a more dominant member. Unified communications also allows us to deliver all forms of communication whilst on the move so our voice messages can be delivered through email and we can redirect our voice extension to our smart phone or tablet.

This is also where the Cloud can come in to its own by delivering the platform and tools to the team members. Data security may be a concern but that will be dependent on the type of Cloud (Private or Public) and the sensitivity of the data.

Having the right technology is very important but we still need some structure around virtual teams. The business process needs to be adapted and guidelines set at the beginning of any assignment. A communication plan is required between participants defining how and frequency of communication with some regular mandatory virtual meetings. It is also essential that documents and plans are maintained so that the team has access to the latest position.

Time zones and cultural differences require some different effort from ensuring meetings respect time zones where possible and considering the styles of communication. Electronic communication can come into its own here as it can take out misunderstandings from language translations.

Communicating without boundaries is not only possible but achievable now and enables the best resources to be pulled together regardless of location.

"This post is on behalf of the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP"

The 11 secrets of highly influential IT leaders

I was sent this book, "The 11 Secrets of Highly Influential IT leaders" by Marc J. Schiller, as I was referenced towards the back of the book which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. As a result I thought I would give it a go. Having read many IT and general management books I thought it would be good for those nights when getting to sleep can be difficult BUT I have to say this was not your typical management book and once started I needed to finish it.
It is a very easy to read book, about the right length and packed full (well 11 actually) of some extremely useful information.
Marc has done an excellent job in researching what makes a successful IT leader and put the answers into an easy to understand style that makes you want to start putting them into action straight away. They all make sense once you have read them and the actions are all very practical and straightforward so you don’t need to be a master of psychology or anything like that.
I thoroughly recommend this book to CIO’s, IT Directors, IT Managers, Programme and Project managers and those that want to aspire to those positions. I believe you will truly learn something from this book that will help you to become more successful.
I get no reward out of promoting this book and am doing so because I believe it has value to the IT management profession.
To make it easier for those people outside of the USA, Marc has given me a discount code which means that you can receive free international shipping on your order
To receive the discount,use this order form https://rainpartners.infusionsoft.com/cart/?product_id=238 and enter code BIRLEYBLOG or birleyblog (case sensitive) in the “Special Code” fields during checkout.
Ps. this book is no use for insomnia!

The CIO as the superhero - P Man

In the dark and distant past, IT professionals tended to be ‘jack of all (IT) trades’ with their knowledge spanning across the various technology disciplines. Then IT professionals started to be put into technology boxes and they became a subject matter X-pert. They were trained to become an X-pert and only an X-pert and this has generally been the way for a while. There was mention of the hybrid IT person but that referred not to cross discipline IT but more of a cross between IT and the business. You don’t seem to hear much of the hybrid term anymore, although the need remains and is growing. Unfortunately the hybrid may now come from the business.

The CIO of today, unless they came from that dark and distant past, were probably trained as an X-pert in a particular field of IT and then as they moved into IT management, still managing their X-pert area, they started to become more aware of cross IT functionality and then on becoming the CIO needed to suddenly have knowledge across all disciplines of IT. Now of course I am generalising here but making a point that a lot of IT people have not had a wide exposure to all the disciplines (except at University where they may have had some theoretical knowledge) and as they get promoted there is a need to gain a wider understanding until they become the CIO and then they will need to be that superhero.

The attributes of a superhero befitting the CIO are:-

• Extraordinary powers, skills and/or equipment (With servers, .net and SQL who could argue!)
• Strong moral code (Everybody is signed up to a professional body’s code of ethics, aren’t they!)
• Secret identity ( not a good one for this role but some CIO’s are unfortunately not known in their own organisation)
• Supporting cast ( the IT management team or at least some of them )
• Number of enemies (the CFO?)
• Base of operations ( secure protected server rooms to hide in)
• A weakness (Not on the board/ poor golf handicap!)

All superheros have a name which can be emblazoned on their chest; I have called mine the ‘P man’. This is perhaps not the most glamorous of names but is very functional and appropriate to what CIO’s need to do.
So why the P man? I think you will discover that the P’s refereed to here are all essential to becoming a superhero CIO.

Let’s start with by taking the first three P’s from the UK governments ‘P30 programme’.

To quote “ The purpose of the Portfolio, Programme and Project Office guidance is to provide universally applicable guidance that will enable individuals and organisations to successfully establish, develop and maintain appropriate business support structures that will allow:

• Informed senior management decision making on strategic alignment, prioritisation, risk management, optimisation of resource etc to deliver their business objectives (Portfolio management)
• Identification and realisation of business outcomes and benefits via Programmes
• Successful delivery of Project outputs that enable benefits within time, cost and quality restraints”

These three P’s are key to a CIO’s success for the very reasons outlined above.

But there are more:-

• Planning - (IT strategy/ project – essential to success)
• Platform – (Getting a solid, flexible and functional infrastructure)
• Policy – (ensuring a set of ‘living’ policies)
• Protection – (security, the key to a good night’s sleep)
• Providers – (supplier management is often overlooked but can pay dividends if done correctly)

And maybe you can think of some more.

The bottom line is that the CIO needs to be seen as the superhero within their organisation and have a wide breadth of knowledge not just about IT but the business that employs them and be able to help that business succeed. They need to deliver on the P’s.

Otherwise the only P they will need will be a Parachute!

"This post is on behalf of the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP"

Improving service in the Cloud

I am a great supporter of Unified Communications and although in basic form it has been around for a while, every year it seems to get better with more and more integration into the normal ways of working. In addition it is now available through the cloud which itself continues to improve with standards and enhanced security. I believe Unified Communications has now come of age and in the next few years will be seen as standard in the way we do business. Although it is about technology, it is a technology that can make business life a lot easier.

Some of the business benefits that can be achieved through the use of Unified Communications technology are:-

• Faster decision making
• Reduced travel which saves time and costs
• Increased productivity
• Enabling flexible working
• Improved connection of dispersed offices
• Enhanced customer service

and many more, not forgetting that some of these will help reduce your carbon footprint.

The other thing to remember about Unified Communications is that it is not just for the big boys and especially with Cloud services, businesses of all sizes can benefit from this technology.

This is a technology not just to watch but to get involved with now.

BT, who are one of the major players in the Unified communications field and in delivering services in the cloud, have released a video....

It is a high level introduction to Unified Communications and non-technical. It emphasises that Unified Communications and the Cloud is now business ready and describes, again at a high level, what benefits it could deliver to all kinds of businesses. I would hope that it might ‘wet the appetite’ of business leaders to seek out further information.

The term Unified Communications describes what it does (unlike some IT terminology where you need to have studied Latin or Greek mythology). It is a set of products that bring together (Unify) all Communication into a single digital view as well as provide ‘presence’ and therefore the ability to communicate with individuals or groups very quickly, based on their availability and regardless of their location. This communication can be email, voice, messaging, video or shared web based platform with document sharing and instant messaging and can be extended to clients.

It is also a technology that will continue to grow with additional functionally being added in the future such as embedding Unified Communications within automated business processes.

That’s enough techno speak, check out the video….

This blog post is commercially sponsored